Understanding the UK’s offshore winds has been a great strength of this nation. A better appreciation of the opportunity they provide to produce a big part of our energy mix, could solve diverse energy challenges of the 21st century. But the industry to build this plant is young. Some onshore technology has been made to work offshore, but specific designs for many of the different needs are yet to emerge. GE Power Conversion have partnered with Edinburgh University to develop one innovative solution. Transferring electricity long distances from where it is made to the consumer requires expensive plant, which must be as efficient as possible. Direct Current (DC) has been the accepted solution to this for long hauls. The Technology Strategy Board are contributing to the development of a rigorous understanding of just how much the cost of electricity from offshore wind can be reduced by GE Power Conversion’s new PassiveBoost™ DC collection system.

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SD-APT brings together diverse organisations with established experience in innovation within the delivery of skills and training and expertise in PEMD to create delivery programs designed to meet the PEMD skills gap challenge at scale. The key objectives will be establishing training assets and routes to: * Transition large volumes of experienced technicians and engineering staff * Prepare a new generation of career-ready PEMD graduates * Engage with a new pipeline of talent The lead partner is Coventry University, a leading modern university with extensive links to transport and major industry sectors. They are joined by North Warwickshire and South Leicestershire College, a large Further Education college working with more than 1,000 national, regional, and local businesses across a wide range of sectors. Resume Foundation, a registered charity, will provide advice and support in working with underrepresented or marginalised people. Industry partners will provide guidance and test training modules to develop content that is refined in a continuous and agile manner to ensure it serves current and emerging sector skills needs. Industry perspectives are represented by industrial end users ZF Automotive UK, GE Power Conversion and supply chain partners Advanced Electronic Machines, Drive System Design and FEV UK. Fluxsys, an SME delivering specialist industrial training, will provide inputs to diversify the type, focus and format of training developed by the project. SD-APT will: * Develop flexible learning assets and supporting content, designed to respond to current and emerging needs of the PEMD sector * Create a blend of state-of-the-art academic and applied industrial teaching materials with a focus upon practical learning * Present core material in a framework which can provide appropriate delivery at skills levels from 2 - 7 * Bring together delivery partners who can tailor the core material framework to meet different student needs through colleges, training institutes and universities, in a range of formats * Creating an agile process whereby the core material can be rapidly adapted to meet industry needs, through digital forums and continuous improvement. * Provide outreach and engagement activities to engage with under-represented groups and with schools to highlight the opportunities in the PEMD and initiate pathways for career development.

Demand for electrification technologies and systems (including power electronics, electrical machines, drives, automation and control systems) is growing. This growth is both i) to meet increased demand for electric power in industrial applications including marine, energy, infrastructure and process industry sectors, and ii) to enable reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions through higher levels of energy efficiency and integration of cleaner energy sources.\r\n\r\nHowever, this growth in electric power demand and the need to incorporate additional hybrid and electric equipment onto more platforms with space constraints means that we have to reconsider power density (we can't just keep adding bigger equipment) and the ability to integrate a power network or micro grid which doesn't add unnecessary complexity or cost.\r\n\r\n**This project focuses on GE's and its UK supply base's ability to lead in industrial electrification by both differentiating on power density _and_ competing on cost more effectively.** We will do this by applying novel production techniques and technology used in low voltage (LV), low power, high volume PE, integrating such converter technology within rotating machines (RM) for a transformative impact on system power density and complexity for lower volume but high performance and high-value sectors. There is an identified potential to reduce total system power density by up to 50% and weight by up to 25%, with additional added value creation for customers in freeing up space for operational use and reducing the cost and installation time of ancillary equipment.\r\n\r\nAside from specialist industrial niches in which the UK supply chain has a strong history and share, much electrification technology development recently has been targeted at consumer products at lower power but higher volume and lower cost, and supplied outside of the UK. As a growth market, expansion of electrification to more large, high power applications is attractive to the UK supply base in reaching larger niches and markets, but also to global providers, so this is both a time-sensitive opportunity UK industry to improve competitiveness _and_ achieve technology leadership.

To reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in line with International Maritime Organization (IMO) regulatory net zero milestones towards 2050 requires step changes in technology and fuels, and won't be achieved through incremental improvements. Ship owners are facing a number of technology options, but must consider these in the context of performance and feasibility of integration, without adversely affecting operational capability, risk and commercial viability to an unacceptable degree. Without this practical consideration, on-ship adoption of cleaner technology may be slower and higher risk, and therefore also deter investment by technology providers. To reduce challenges, this consortium believes that, in parallel with cleaner energy technology-readiness level (TRL) progression, the key lies in SRL and ORL -- systems- and operational readiness levels - to de-risk adoption and focus on real functionality and impact. SRL involves proving physical integration and interfaces, automation and control of system behaviours and functionality within the platform's mission or duty cycle. This project focuses on addressing barriers to adoption of fuel cells on a real, large ship application, potentially accelerating adoption, evaluating: * how a fuel cell can be applied to marine applications and safely integrated into a ship's operational functionality * how a fuel cell can be integrated into a larger ship's power and propulsion architecture and layout * trade-offs, and how the new technology compares with current ship functionality and performance * impact on reducing emissions compared with today's baseline * a roadmap to implementation.

**Vision: Advancing PEMD through integrating large electric machines and convertors.** Today almost all motor applications take advantage of variable speed for efficiency, deploying a power electronic convertor between machine and grid to achieve this. Especially for high power applications, motors and convertors have become functionally inseparable, but industry continues to make them physically two discrete components, cabled together. **Innovation: integration of power electronics and electrical machines into a single housing to form an integrated electrical drive brings several benefits** such as, increased power density, reduced overall footprint, cabling, cooling, overall system layout flexibility and cost. Because of these benefits, integrated drives are gaining market share in small drives of ratings below 1 MW, but there are some integration and manufacturing challenges to commercially exploit these benefits and achieve this fusion at multi-megawatt scale. **Focus**: Often in megawatt-scale power electronics and electrical machines, the design and manufacturing of the electronics and electrical machines are undertaken by separate teams. To fully realise the benefits of their fusion, an integrated design and manufacturing team with skill sets ranging from power electronics to electrical machines and advanced manufacturing is paramount. This collaborative project will draw expertise from industrial disciplines and academia to unlock the key design-for-manufacture, integration and manufacturing aspects to allow a multi-megawatt machine with integrated power electronics at scale to be brought closer to market, by derisking key areas. The 'Conmotator' project (combined convertor-motor to electronic commutator) project investigates and addresses the key technological, integration and manufacturing challenges to allow the commercial exploitation of an integrated electrical machine where the power electronics and motor are contained within a single physical unit at the multi-MW level. The project develops and tests the interfaces that bridge between existing Motor and Drive elements and investigates manufacturing/supply chain aspects related to megawatt scale integrated electrical machines to pave the way for full commercial exploitation, targeting the benefits at a worldwide market, placing UK industry as world class leader in this field.

This joint initiative between GE, the University of Warwick and the University of Nottingham is focusing on innovation in the field of marine energy and power systems. The consortium draws on key strengths i.e. GE’s UK engineering talent, Whetstone testing and Rugby manufacturing facilities combined with University of Warwick’s expertise with motors and University of Nottingham’s analytics. The project’s outcome is an optimised electric system with DC architecture, energy storage and high power-density motor with innovative cooling to benefit major naval programmes, both in the UK and abroad.