This project is a building on and adding to our successful Energy Catalyst R8 early-stage project, demonstrating good feasibility of the proposed concepts in enhancing the efficiency of onshore wave energy converters (WECs) and developing advanced wave-powered microgrids (WPMG) in the selected remote islands of Thailand with limited or no grid access which currently use expensive, polluting diesel generators (DEGs) as the main supply. The unit cost of the electricity generated by WPMGs can be significantly reduced by advanced predictive optimal control strategies to improve the wave power output of the WECs in a range of sea states with state-of-the-art power electronic components and novel microgrid energy management systems (EMS). The EMS can significantly reduce the power conversion/distribution losses and use deep-learning-based algorithms to forecast the stochastic loads in varying weather and wave conditions. Moreover, the microgrid provides a reliable and secure source of electricity using distributed and remote EMS services. In this mid-stage project, we aim to systematically demonstrate the efficacies of the whole concept to pave the way for sea-trial testing validation at the final stage. The consortia will integrate all the key components into one hybrid system-level wave-to-wire (W2W) WPMG simulator to validate the functionalities of the microgrid efficiently and economically in various scenarios close to real sea conditions. The wave prediction will be enabled by the latest Radar-based technology to provide shutdown signals for detrimental waves and to increase the survivability of the WECs. We aim to increase the technology readiness level (TRL) of the proposed WPMG technologies to build up a stand-alone microgrid in the final stage. Overall, the project aims to provide inclusive community-based renewable energy (sensitive to gender equality and social inclusiveness) that addresses the lack of energy access in Thailand's remote and isolated islands and eventually in other SE Asia countries like the Philippines and Indonesia. The project consortia include key industrial players, including Aquatera, Hitachi Energy, Toshiba, EcoWavePower, and major universities QMUL, Manchester & Exeter, for successfully delivering the project objectives. Following our successful workshops in the early-stage project, we will hold further technical and training workshops for the technology transfer in the SE Asia region, especially for female professionals, to promote gender equality in the renewable energy sector.

With the pressure to reduce emissions in the maritime industry, there has been an increase in demand over the past years for ports and harbours to provide cold-ironing services so that vessels can stop running their shipboard engines for auxiliary hotel loads when at berth, and in turn reduce emissions. In response to this, numerous solutions for providing shoreside power supply to these vessels have been developed and installed. However, there is no ready solution which provides this option for vessels which are at anchorages. The project involves the technical, economical and operational feasibility study of a near-shore cold-ironing solution, specifically catered for consistent and sufficient power supply to cruise liners in port anchorages, using a relevant case study (such as the Hatston Pier) as a basis. Orcades Marine has been working on a near-shore cold-ironing design using Hatston Pier as a potential use case. Given the rising demand for cold-ironing from cruise liners, and the steady traffic of cruise ships at Hatston, the Orkney Island Council Harbour Authority expressing explicit interest in the concept. It is intended for the solution to sustain the hotel loads of a cruise ship at anchorages, which would require hefty cable management system, making the operation of connecting the cable to the ship at sea to be challenging. Orcades Marine's team which has decades of operational experience with ports and vessel operations, including cruise ships, have devised a technical solution to make this task practical and safe. The project will be carried out by a team of experts from Orcades Marine, Orkney Island Council Harbour Authority, Schneider Electric UK, GAC UK and Aquatera. The team is highly experience in the own fields, allowing for the delivery of a comprehensive project, covering considerations from engineering (both marine and shoreside infrastructure), safety, harbour operations and management, to environmental and stakeholder engagement.

The Rural Energy Hubs project builds upon decades of experience, joint working and delivering innovative low-carbon projects in Orkney and Shetland. It embraces a place-based demonstration approach to overcoming non-technical barriers to accelerate decarbonisation. Seven work packages integrated across the energy system demonstrate how decarbonisation can be developed, embedded and accelerated by establishing locally-led coordinated action in Rural Energy Hubs, providing innovative and practical focal-points to drive decarbonisation for individuals, businesses and local authorities, maximising social, economic and environmental benefits. This project brings together work and partners from the Net Zero Living Orkney and Shetland Rural Energy Hubs projects in Phase 1 of the Net Zero Living: Pathfinder Places programme. Both studies built on learning and challenges from the IUK PFER demonstration project ReFLEX Orkney, an ambitious programme of innovative integrated consumer-facing community-led services that encountered significant non-technical barriers. This Phase 2 project seeks innovative solutions to key non-technical barriers: finance, regulation, grid capacity, resource, behavioural change and lack of data. High-impact outputs have been developed to encompass all modalities of the energy system: * Transport -- innovative electric and hydrogen solutions for local authority fleets including large mobility vehicles, integrating demand-led community-managed services, a Mobility as a Service (MaaS) platform and distributed charging infrastructure, financially sustainable car club models for rural areas, maritime and aviation decarbonisation trials for passenger vessel and heavy-lift drones, plus holistic, system-wide planning for decarbonisation of transport across communities. * Heat -- district heating solutions for rural communities, smarter monitoring in domestic and community premises to drive behaviour change, development of the Building Renovation Passport programme to support users through all aspects of decarbonising homes and offices. * Power -- developing affordable models of supporting individuals, communities and businesses with renewable generation and battery solutions; including incorporating energy generation and storage into Rural Energy Hubs. These mode-based innovation activities will be linked together to allow the setup of the first pilot Rural Energy Hub, in Brae, Shetland; showcasing delivery of our fully integrated, local, placed-based solutions. Learning will be combined into a UK-wide replication plan, which incorporates a range of place-based business models to ensure maximum uptake. The partners are Aquatera (AQT) (lead), Orkney Islands Council (OIC), Shetland Islands Council (SIC), the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC), Community Energy Scotland (CES) and Highland Fuels (HF). This hand-picked team brings together significant real-world experience of addressing non-technical barriers to decarbonisation and successfully delivering ambitious projects of this nature.

BAMBOO tackles the barriers for the implementation of a sustainable, large-scale offshore Floating PhotoVoltaics (FPV) system of 1 km2/150 MW, that will act as a blueprint for rollout of offshore FPV projects in Europe, and that is to be implemented in conjunction with the offshore wind leading EU utility-partner. Offshore FPV extends PV potential at enormous scales to make Europe meet its climate targets for 2030 and 2050. It makes use of space at sea, large-scale economies of scale, complementary energy yield with wind farms, and it isa solution with potentially low impact on aquatic eco-systems. However, developing offshore FPV systems is technically challenging due to the harsh conditions of waves &corrosive environments, and economically not feasible yet. Project BAMBOO addresses these challenges through four breakthrough innovations, including: 1. Large floating surface understanding through world’s first basin scale tests and hydrodynamic modelling of 1 km2 blanket-type arrays, 2. A 5 MW demonstrator in the North Sea with hybrid design encompassing the benefits of larger array protection in floaters, 3. The offshore world’s first dynamic floating substation for offshore FPV, and 4. The development of 6 world’s first standard offshore testing methodologies for key FPV-components Through assessments of energy yield, circularity of materials, environmental impact, LCA and end-of-life strategies, BAMBOO paves the way to scale offshore FPV systems to commercial and sustainable applications, significantly reducing emissions, while having a net-positive impact on the marine ecosystem. The consortium covers what is necessary to make BAMBOO a success: companies including Oceans of Energy will provide the technologies, RTOs including MARIN and Fraunhofer the assessment of the system and its environmental impact, ABS expertise on certifications and the industry-leading utility the capacity to implement the large-scale integration of offshore wind with FPV farms.

This project (IselAI) brings an exciting artificial intelligence dimension to the successful and live data exchange platform (IsleDEX) built under the PFER funded ReFLEX smart local energy system (SLES) demonstrator project. IsleAI includes the same key players as IsleDEX, namely UrbanTide, Aquatera and EMEC. It will be led by ReFLEX Orkney, the special purpose vehicle set-up under the ReFLEX SLES project. It also brings in two Orkney based development trusts as pilot customers. The costs and benefits of the "just transition" to net zero must be spread fairly across all incomes so the poorest won't proportionally pay more but they share in the benefits of low-carbon technologies. Rural and island communities are particularly exposed to fuel poverty. Access to data and the latest developments in artificial intelligence will be an important component in the just transition. It is harder to model the housing stock in rural and island areas than built up urban areas. Alongside higher fuel poverty rural and island areas often have older and less energy efficient housing stock than urban areas too. This adds weight to the need for robust data to help decision making on property upgrades. IsleAI will help address fuel poverty, reduce power consumption, ensure houses are appropriately heated and support the increasing use of locally produced renewable energy. IsleAI utilises existing and novel data sources with the latest AI techniques, by leveraging UrbanTide's uZero, an advanced fuel poverty identification tool, which is the only product in the UK which incorporates Smart Meter System Metadata, to advance the identification of at-risk places, support new interventions and monitor impact. It will integrate recently launched thermal imaging Vu satellites with 3m resolution, ideal for measuring localised thermal dynamics at a building level. This includes newly developed façade recognition AI to enrich current energy analysis. This will be linked with other energy data to support the adoption of new technologies at a community level. IsleAI will provide the new insights to decision-makers in the energy value chain including segmentation of households by postcode to better understand different customer types (can't pay, could pay and would pay), building unique 'Place Profiles' to support more efficient homes and uptake of low carbon technologies.

This project, a collaboration between Shetland Islands Council (SIC), Aquatera and Community Energy Scotland (CES), will address the non-technical systemic barriers to implementing rural energy hubs in Shetland. All organisations are partners in the Island Centre for Net Zero (ICNZ), a new 10-year programme that begins summer 2023\. ICNZ creates a pan-island innovation centre that will support Shetland, Orkney and the Outer Hebrides to become lighthouse communities for energy transition, trialing and accelerating solutions to decarbonisation that have replicability and application worldwide. Energy hubs that incorporate electric vehicle (EV) charge points, on-site community renewable energy generation and storage, fleet vehicles, information, training and recycling facilities provide an opportunity to co-ordinate decarbonisation efforts within a whole systems approach. However, these hubs are difficult to implement in areas such as Shetland due to low population density, remote settlements, grid constraints and lack of skills capacity. The study will utilise previous and ongoing SIC work to determine achievable pathways for decarbonising key sectors and reaching net zero through an integrated energy hub. It seeks to address the following barriers which we have come across so far: regulation, grid capacity, resource (skills/capacity), behavioural change and lack of data. The feasibility study will be split into seven stages: \*Literature review: review previous work by SIC and other agencies within Shetland relevant for rural energy hub creation \*Consultation: obtain ideas, options and community buy in to the overall concept \*Long-list of options: consider products and services for inclusion within the hub along with their advantages and challenges \*Short-listing: workshop with SIC team and relevant stakeholders to distil the longer list into short list of options \*Site identification: identify an appropriate site for an initial hub, reviewing what a network of hubs could achieve and where would they be sited \*Detailed option analysis: fully develop short-listed options to understand how barriers or challenges can be mitigated \*Concept report: highlight findings of the study as well as analysis of a preferred site and options for inclusion in a rural energy hub Overall, this work will unlock the non-technical barriers across transport, energy use, reuse, recycling and waste, business and industry, and buildings, which are all considered holistically within an integrated energy hub, enabling a clearer path to implementation within Shetland and other rural communities. Solutions and data achieved will be able to be rolled out across ICNZ and rural communities nationally.

Since the UK's first grid-connected wind turbine started generating electricity in 1951, Orkney has been a world leading testbed for renewable energy and decarbonisation - pioneering innovative approaches and technologies; and growing a collaborative, expert community of keen early adopters and volunteers for pilots and projects. Featuring leadership and involvement of long established and effective local partnerships between Aquatera, Orkney Islands Council, the European Marine Energy Centre, Community Energy Scotland and ReFLEX Orkney Ltd the NZPP Orkney project will build on this tradition of innovation success and pioneering development activity. These partners have significant real-world experience of non-technical barriers to achieving innovation in energy solutions, which include regulation, policy, finance, behavioural change and challenges with restrictions around the grid network. Following previous work such as the Orkney ReFLEX project, these issues are well understood but have proven wicked problems to address to date. The NZPP project will specifically engage with these known difficulties -- unlocking new and innovative solutions which can secure further progress for Orkney in decarbonisation. The Project will also take place in sequence directly after core funding completes for ReFLEX Orkney, and the launch of the new Islands Deal _Islands Centre for Net Zero project_. The ICNZ also involves the Orkney NZPP partners, and Heriot Watt University - in a 10 year programme to create a pan-island innovation Centre that will support Orkney, Shetland and the Outer Hebrides. The NZPP project will therefore enable a jump start for key thematic objectives which can underpin the future work of the ICNZ - ensuring accelerated solutions to decarbonisation for Orkney and the Scottish Islands which will in turn have replicability and application worldwide. Transition and transferability of understanding of challenges and solutions development are critical hallmarks of the NZPP project process. This will form a foundation of the Orkney project from the outset -- with direct collaboration already in place to link in with a parallel bid led by Shetland Islands Council to pursue a NZPP agenda for Shetland linked to energy hubs. There will be mutual benefit in the cumulative activity between Orkney and Shetland associated with these pilot projects -- reflecting the strong traditions of both Orkney and Shetland as innovative island communities; and presenting an effective pathway to the future work of the ICNZ which will further enable this partnership to include experience and challenges of communities across the Western Isles and beyond.

The coming years will see a significant increase in marine traffic associated with offshore wind development, at the same time as maritime technology will introduce measures to decarbonise with clean fuels and electrification of vessels. A system of Floating Fuel Depots (FFDs) is proposed as a means of facilitating the supply of fuels to this fleet, while optimising transit distances, reducing emissions and easing pressures on port facilities. FFDs comprise modular moored platforms that are outfitted with plant and storage equipment to support the servicing of marine vessels at optimal locations, close to the construction or operational sites. Through this project, Apollo, EMEC and Aquatera will thoroughly explore the technical and economic potential of the FFD concept, while investigating the environmental, societal and economic opportunity that they present. To demonstrate the potential of the Floating fuels depot project, a network of strategic locations for FFDs will be considered for marine traffic supporting the North Sea Scotwind development. Focussing on future fuel types (including hydrogen, e-methanol and ammonia etc) we will identify optimum location for boats to refuel. These will remove unnecessary additional movements back to ports and harbours, removing journeys which are solely for refuelling, thus reducing carbon emissions and contributing to the efficiency of the entire sector. A concept design will be developed for a modular Floating Fuel Depot system, with emphasis on repurposing of existing infrastructure, considering offshore generation and storage of fuels for the maritime sector. Balancing the key drivers of supply and demand, forecasted traffic, technology availability and initial and through life costs, this study will provide a clear path forward for this concept. Key stakeholders will be consulted to estimate timing, evaluate societal benefit and review all legislation and consenting constraints, producing a solution which brings tangible decarbonisation and commercial benefits across the value chain. Our aim is to progress this project so that it is ready in time to support the rapid expansion in offshore wind (ScotWind and INTOG), support sustainable decommissioning of North Sea oil and gas assets as well as life extension projects, as well as freight and tourism vessels. By considering the specifics of the ScotWind development we aim to inform the potential for the whole maritime sector, both UK and abroad. At the end of the project, Apollo, EMEC and Aquatera look forward to sharing the outcomes and deliverables industry wide.

ZEHPHyr1, Zero Emission Hydrogen Powered Hovercraft, is an 8-month feasibility which will de-risk the key barriers to zero-emission hovercraft operations. These barriers include -- operational barriers (socio-economics, crew training, regulations, life cycle impact), technical barriers (hydrogen-based propulsion system) and availability of hydrogen infrastructure (production, storage, distribution, bunkering, integration with wider infrastructure/mobility). The central innovation in the project is the replacement of the diesel engines in today's hovercraft with a zero-emission hydrogen propulsion system consisting of MW class fuel cells, electric thrusters and high-power batteries. The project's goal is to find credible solutions to overcoming the above barriers and in doing so, pave the way for follow-on phases of development, where the novel propulsion system will be demonstrated on 12-seat and 80-seat hovercraft. Introduction of zero-emission hovercraft into commercial service is expected in 2027/28, with letters of support received from potential end users. In addition to the hovercraft, additional spillover products are expected to be commercialised as a result of the project, namely MW class fuel cells and batteries (into other marine vessels) and electric thrusters (into other industries, e.g., aerospace). The project team consists of a best-of-breed consortium well placed to deliver the desired goals of the project. Led by Blue Bear, the team includes, Griffon Hoverwork Limited, Bramble Energy, Nyobolt, Aquatera and the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC).

Archipelagic nations such as the Philippines continue to deal with challenges in electricity provision in remote islands due to the barriers for grid connection. Currently, most of these off-grid communities rely on costly and polluting diesel generators which are unable to provide reliable, affordable and sustainable energy access. Renewable energy technologies, such as solar photovoltaic, wind, biomass and tidal energy conversion are poised to provide electricity in off-grid areas. With the trend of decreasing costs, these options are opportunities for private sector investment in a market that was once handled by missionary electrification programs by the national government. However, the smaller scale of individual project locations and the costs of performing on-site feasibility studies are barriers that do not attract private investors. This project aims to reduce the barriers to development of renewable off-grid energy systems by developing an integrated assessment tool. This toolkit integrates the analysis of techno-economic, environmental, social, legal and geographic considerations to identify viable islands for further consideration. A detailed front-end design is performed to verify the results and demonstrate the application of the toolkit. This project brings together the expertise of Aquatera (for project management and technical design reviews) and OceanPixel (project development, stakeholder management, and engineering aspects) together with the academic partners (for stakeholder engagement, systems modeling, sustainability assessment) at University of the Philippines, Silliman University and Ateneo de Davao University . It is planned that this project will accelerate the deployment of sustainable energy systems resulting in improved quality of life and greater productivity in off-grid communities. With the development and use of this toolkit, energy developers can cut down costs on pre-feasibility surveys and better leverage their resources towards sites with greatest potential. The project will conduct a feasibility study across the 3 island groups of the Philippines (Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao) specifically looking at off-grid islands of a certain size and with a certain level of inhabitants where potential progressive development can be enabled by the provision of renewable energy through an integrated energy systems approach that also takes into consideration the productive end-use of such energy should the next phases of a proposed project be implemented. The project aims to identify at least 5 off-grid islands per island group that could be assessed in greater details to move the potential investment and/or business case for such candidate sites/projects.

The 'Hydrogen in an Integrated Maritime Energy Transition' (HIMET) project will demonstrate maritime decarbonisation enabling technologies, encompassing the design, development, and demonstration of four solutions: 1.Hydrogen systems and future micro-grid architectures for resilient shore-side power, including testing of a hybrid hydrogen/solar system and deployment of this hybrid system on Orkney; 2.Combustion of hydrogen in a marine propulsion engine, through testing at a dedicated hydrogen test facility in the north east of England; 3.Demonstration of a marinised hydrogen storage container, for the application on board a vessel; and 4. Hydrogen fuel cell demonstration, showing the potential of the technology to safely supply auxiliary power for a vessel. This ambitious programme of activities will focus on the decarbonisation of two key maritime sectors in Orkney: ferry service and cruise terminal operations. These first-of-a-kind demonstrations will build the evidence base needed to enable broader maritime decarbonisation using hydrogen technologies. Although our activities focus on addressing challenges seen in the Orkney context, our findings will be applicable to all island and coastal environments where vessels provide vital lifeline services. After project demonstration activities are complete, HIMET partners will pursue opportunities to develop applications for type approval of the systems demonstrated, in order to facilitate uptake across the UK, and beyond. This will create market opportunities for the integrated HIMET team of UK technology developers and maritime engineering experts. In parallel, we will also carry out research and stakeholder engagement activities to establish how these deployments can best inform the broader maritime energy transition in Orkney and elsewhere. We will draw upon embedded energy system and maritime innovation expertise in Orkney and in the north east of England, both areas identified as centres of excellence in research and development for these sectors. Our consortium is further strengthened by the involvement of leading technology developers from all across the United Kingdom, who will bring their innovative systems and solutions to Orkney for testing in our "living laboratory". This combined work programme will build on Orkney's position as an ideal location to research, develop and demonstrate the maritime technologies and working practices of the future.

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"The energy system in Orkney is subject to specific constraints, and its independent location means it is the ideal location to demonstrate the capabilities of a self-contained smart energy network, and the potential impact it can deliver. Orkney is a representation of energy supply problems which energy networks find difficult to solve using traditional technology. Specifically; Orkney produces 130% of the electricity it needs through existing installed renewable generation, yet 63% of Orkneys residents live in fuel poverty. Project **ReFLEX** will install **FLEX**ible technologies to address the restrictions which cause this imbalance and demonstrate a **Re**sponsive Virtual Energy System which links these networks together. Thus, allowing production to be maximised, efficiencies to be recovered, and new business models to be proven, meaning energy can be supplied at minimum cost to the consumer and generating knowledge which will allow us to replicate activity and impact across the UK and internationally. The project will last for 36 months and include the installation and operation of multiple technologies including: \*Vehicle to grid charging infrastructure \*Building management systems \*Virtual power plant systems \*Integrated Grid-smart community-led transport system and infrastructure \*Smart Heating Controllers A Virtual Energy System will combine the above infrastructure to demonstrate the capabilities of a smart energy system.

Aqua Power Technologies is leading the development of a novel wave energy converter technology. The project aims to undertake feasibility studies, through market research, and numerical simulation modelling, in an effort to better understand the novel structures performance in a range of simulated scenarios, which will subsequently be validated by a prototype of the fundamental operational components.