8th PRIMaRE Conference

Dr. Mark Hemer is a Principal Research Scientist with CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere, Australia, and leads the Offshore Renewable Energy Systems program of the Australian Blue Economy Co-operative Research Centre. Mark's research addresses industry challenges - Over the past decade, he has increasingly focussed efforts to assess the opportunities for offshore renewable energy (wind, wave, tidal and solar) to contribute to Australia's future energy mix. Concurrently, he has maintained his research as a shelf oceanographer, with strong interests in MetOcean conditions in a variable and changing climate, with application to coastal hazards, and the potential impacts of climate change and the implications for coastal risk management. Mark maintains a number of national and international roles, including as the Australian delegate to the International Energy Agency Ocean Energy Systems Technology Collaboration Program; Chair of Australia's Forum for Operational Oceanography Surface Waves Working Group; and a lead author on the upcoming IPCC Sixth Assessment Report (Oceans, cryosphere and sea-level change). Mark has published over 70 peer-reviewed research papers, and more than 70 other reports and articles.

Dr. Zhaoqing Yang is a Chief Scientist for Ocean Modeling at the Marine and Coastal Research Laboratory of the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and a Distinguished Faculty Fellow in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington, USA. Dr. Yang’s recent research focuses on marine renewable energy resource assessment and the impacts of extreme events and anthropogenic disturbances on coastal infrastructure and ecosystems. Dr. Yang leads PNNL’s modeling effort on wave and tidal stream energy resource characterization as well as environmental impact assessment associated with tidal energy development. Dr. Yang is a member of the Editorial Board for Journal of Renewable Energy, Journal Coastal Research and Journal of Marine Sciences and Engineering. He holds a Ph.D. in Physical Oceanography from the School of Marine Sciences, College of William and Mary.

Dr George Crossley is the manager of Falmouth Bay Test Site (FaBTest) and a Business Research Fellow on the ERDF funded Marine-I project in Cornwall. George’s expertise is in the testing of novel technologies at sea, the operation of marine instrumentation, and oceanography. FaBTest is a nursery demonstration site primarily for Marine Energy Converters, their moorings and components, and is experienced in the testing of wave energy converters in moderate seas. FaBTest is, in the next year, extending its capacity to enable the testing of floating wind turbines.

Marlène Moutel is the Commercial engineer for SABELLA is developing tidal energy solutions, with a particular focus on offgrid and remote areas. Marlène is responsible for prospecting new tidal energy projects in France and worldwide. Ushant island, France is the main showcase of SABELLA’s tidal technology where D10-1000 has been deployed several times. Marlène has been working for SABELLA for 3 years and holds a Masters degree in Renewable energy and energy efficiency from ESIEE Paris

Paul Vigars is Head of Engineering of Bombora, with 16 years’ experience in the marine renewables sector. Paul spent 10 years working with Tidal Generation Limited, Rolls-Royce and Alstom resulting in 500kW and 1MW tidal turbines built and tested at EMEC. He then moved from tidal to wave energy, initially joining Wavepower before becoming part of the Bombora team in early 2018. Paul leads the engineering team in all technical areas of the design, testing, fabrication, assembly and installation of Bombora’s cutting-edge submerged rubber membrane clad cell module wave energy converter system. The company is currently at the final assembly stage of a full-scale 1.5MW mWave demonstration project in Pembrokeshire. Climate change must be one of, if not the greatest challenge we currently face. Being an engineer is all about problem solving and Paul is passionate about working alongside a talented team on a project that tackles this issue head-on to develop a solution that supports a low carbon future.

Steve Jermy is a master mariner and offshore renewable energy professional, Executive Chair at Wave Hub Ltd and a Non-Executive Director, with lead for marine and energy, on the Cornwall & Isles of Scilly Local Enterprise Partnership (CIOS LEP). His 35 years’ offshore sector experience includes ships’ diving, fishery protection, sea command, and offshore aviation. In the offshore renewable energy sector, he has worked for Mojo Maritime Ltd and James Fisher Group plc, both world-leaders in wave and tidal energy, and has led three major offshore renewable energy R&D projects. In addition to his day role at Wave Hub, he now heads up: the regional task force created to take forward floating offshore wind in Cornwall, the Great South West and Wales; Zero Carbon Cornwall, the CIOS LEP’s strategy to achieve net-zero in Cornwall by 2030. Steve has a BSc in Applied Mathematics and Physical Oceanography from Bangor University, an MPhil in International Relations and International Economics from Cambridge University, and is a Fellow of both the Nautical Institute and the Institute of Marine Engineers, Scientists and Technologists.

Jeremy Thake is Head of Engineering for SIMEC Atlantis Energy, having been working in tidal energy for 20 years. He started with one of the first tidal turbines, Seaflow, installed at Lynmouth in the Bristol Channel. He has worked for IT Power, Marine Current Turbines, Tidal Generation Limited and now Atlantis. He has been involved in all aspects of turbine and site development, including Atlantis’ 1.5MW AR1500 turbine installed at MeyGen, and the recent AR500 turbine installed in Japan.

With 15 years’ experience in the Renewable Energy sector, Jess Hooper leads the Marine Energy Wales (MEW) programme. MEW is the industry led stakeholder group representing the wave, tidal and floating offshore wind industries in Wales. MEW brings together technology developers, regulators, funders, test centres, wider sectoral alliances, the supply chain, academia and the public sector to establish Wales as a global leader in sustainable emerging offshore renewable generation. Wales is blessed with some of the most diverse marine energy resources in the world and we have key energy players working to unlock the potential to harness these infinite resources.

David Glasby is a mechanical design engineer and research assistant at Swansea University. He will present the development of SELKIE’s converging-Beam Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (cADCP) tool. The converging-Beam Acoustic Doppler Profiler (cADCP) is a cutting-edge device that aims to provide current, wave and turbulence measurements for data analysis purposes. This data will be beneficial in growing our understanding and characterisation of the fluid dynamics of tidal stream sites. The cADCP is being developed as part of the SELKIE Project WP7 objectives. Once validated the design will be made available as an open-source tool for use across this sector. The cADCP device uses a highly innovative automated air lift recovery system which could help revolutionise the cost of scientific instrument deployment.

Bethan Simes is the Project Manager for the Marine Energy Test Area (META) Project, part of the Marine Energy Wales programme and one pillar of the Swansea Bay City Deal, Pembroke Dock Marine Project. With over six years project management experience, Bethan has supported the delivery of META from initial project development through to operational status.