Energy Week creates a buzz for Nottingham!
 From 19 – 25 June over 230 attendees visited the University to take part in a week-long series of free events to celebrate EU Sustainable Energy Week.
The Energy Innovation and Collaboration team worked with partners East Midlands Chamber, the Energy Research Accelerator, Woodhead Construction, the GeoEnergy Research Centre, the Sustainability Research Network, Nottingham City Council, the British Geological Survey and leading policy experts to bring this series of events to the general public.
Topics covered included the circular economy, energy storage, fuel poverty, energy for developing countries, energy policy, smart energy communities, creating spaces for innovation and sustainable construction. New connections and opportunities were identified during the well-received energy focused activities that brought together business owners, academics, researchers and the general public.
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Land Quality Management supported through 'Energy for Business'
Land Quality Management Ltd (LQM) are a specialist environmental consultancy based in Nottingham. Since 2015, they have led a consortium including organisations such as the British Geological Survey, Nottingham Geospatial Institute and Nottingham Energy Partnership to develop Data4Sustain, a web-based decision making tool for evaluating the use of potential renewable energy technologies. When LQM needed support with gathering data around hydrogen storage for use in their tool, they approached the Energy Innovation and Collaboration team who were able to offer funded support from the University through the 'Energy for Business' project.
 The team produced a report for LQM on hydrogen storage and the associated restrictions that could discourage potential use at a given site. This included the specific advantages and disadvantages of different types of storage, and the separation distances required between hydrogen storage locations and other natural and man-made structures. LQM can now go on to use this data in the Data4Sustain tool to provide a means of assessing the potential siting of hydrogen systems.
Judith Nathanail of LQM commented,"It was great to be able to access the expertise of the University to develop a data layer looking at site suitability for Hydrogen storage and generation. We can now add this to our data on site feasibility for solar or wind electricity generation to guide those looking for opportunities to generate and store renewable energy."
For more details Judith can be contacted at judith.nathanail@lqm.co.uk.
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National awards for Nottingham's Carbon Neutral Laboratory
 The striking GSK Carbon Neutral Laboratories building at the University of Nottingham has won 2 national construction awards, including 'Sustainable Construction of the Year'. After a public vote it also scooped 'Client of the Year' in recognition of the ambition for sustainability and setting new industry standards despite setbacks when a fire destroyed the timber-framed building during construction in September 2014.
Chris Jagger, Chief Estates and Facilities Officer at the University of Nottingham, said: “We are delighted that we have been recognised by our peers in the construction industry. The GSK Carbon Neutral Laboratories for Sustainable Chemistry truly are revolutionary and will drive change in how Chemistry research is delivered. Last year we completed four major building projects at the University all with sustainability excellence embedded in the construction and the Client of the Year award is testament to the professionalism and hard work of the teams who work with us to deliver these projects. “
The building was designed for minimal environmental impact and incorporates innovative developments in sustainable construction and renewable energy provision to ensure zero impact on the environment over 25 years.
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New videos for energy at Nottingham
 In the first of our new energy videos, Dr Lucelia Rodrigues, Prof Mark Gillott and colleagues, explain how the University of Nottingham has come together with several partners to put research in to practice at the Trent Basin housing development in Nottingham.
Project SCENe (Sustainable Community Energy Networks) accelerates the adoption of community energy systems, a different way of generating and supplying heat and electricity to homes and commercial buildings.
Watch the video
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Claire Perry visit
 Minister of State for Climate Change, Claire Perry, visited Nottingham recently to meet with researchers at the University. She was welcomed by Professor Dame Jessica Corner, Professor Gavin Walker, Gordon Waddington of ERA, Charles Bradshaw-Smith of SmartKlub and Nick Ebbs of Blueprint. Part of the visit saw her tour and view some of the energy storage and smart technologies at our Creative Energy Homes, pictured. Creative Energy Homes is a £2.5m project of seven test houses on the University Park Campus, that serve as a living test-site for leading firms to work with the University to investigate the integration of energy efficient technologies into houses. The houses are connected in an innovative smart heat and power microgrid.
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Biogas production workshop for Tanzania
 In July, as part of an Innovate UK funded research project, Dr. Mike Clifford visited Tanzania to take part in a workshop on biogas production. The trip included several visits to small-scale biogas installations.
Mike commented, “I was impressed to see a range of technologies being used to replace charcoal and wood as cooking fuels. People were very proud of their biogas plants and used the slurry to fertilize their gardens. We were welcomed into people’s homes with open arms. It was a trip to remember.”
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Offshore Energy & Storage Conference
The fourth international conference on Offshore Energy & Storage (OSES2017) took place at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in Cape Cod between July 12 and 14 of this year. The conference series has emerged from a vision shared by researchers at the University of Nottingham and colleagues at the University of Windsor in Canada. Five years ago these were the only two universities to have given serious consideration to the possibility of storing substantial amounts of energy at very low cost in the form of compressed air held deep underwater (several hundreds of metres).
The conference included contributions from 10 different countries and featured topics such as underwater compressed air (in a format not previously discussed), liquid air energy storage combined with pumped thermal energy storage, flexing desalination plant to match the availability of wind resources, integrating wave energy with offshore wind power plants, integrating uranium collection with offshore wind farms, novel inspection methods for monitoring offshore structures and a host of other contributions ranging from the deeply analytical to the highly inventive.
 Seamus Garvey of the University of Nottingham and Rupp Carriveau of the University of Windsor share the view that the emphasis on offshore energy is presently at a tipping-point, with the ability to dispatch energy when it is in high demand becoming more important than the so-called “Levelised cost of electricity”. They have accepted the honour of becoming co-chairs of a new technical committee on ocean energy for the IEEE Oceanic Engineering Society, who are set to co-sponsor the conference in future years.
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Scale to measure motivation to save energy at work
Researchers at Nottingham have developed a scale that can measure the motivation to save energy at work, predicting energy-saving intentions and sustainable choices. In two studies, researcher found that 'helping their organisation and the planet' and feeling a 'warm-glow' were rated as important motivations. Notably, the stronger the motivations to promote one's reputation were, the weaker was the intention to save energy. The results of this work could be an effective addition to environmental messages used as motivations in marketing campaigns.
Read the full article and contact Caroline Leygue if you would like to discuss this research further.
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Focus on the 'GeoEnergy Research Centre'
 Founded in 2015, the GeoEnergy Research Centre (GERC) is a £14 million pioneering joint venture co-established by the University of Nottingham and the British Geological Survey. The centre has strong international partnerships with Virginia Tech (US) and the China University of Mining and Technology.
GERC has been instrumental in the development and drilling of the GeoEnergy Test Bed (GTB), an Energy Research Accelerator (ERA) facility at Nottingham’s Sutton Bonington campus. This will enable researchers to test and develop new sensor technologies and fluid-flow simulation software.
To find out more visit the GERC website
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ETRI Lecture | Navigating a changing energy landscape
7 September 2017
In this talk Craig Edgar will discuss how Atkins Energy approaches energy threats and opportunities while looking at the impacts of digitalisation on the energy landscape.
Find out more
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High Pressure XPS of Energy Materials
20 September 2017
This day of talks will explore the application of near-ambient pressure x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy to surfaces for energy applications including fuel cells, photocatalytic surfaces, gas storage, batteries, photovoltaics and more.
Find out more
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