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The Joule Centre for Energy Research

The Joule Centre is a collaboration between Universities of the North West of England, the Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA), commercial organisations and various stakeholders within the energy industry, created to boost energy research and development through funding and grants. It has come out of the complimentary strengths of the participating organisations across a range of energy disciplines.^[1]

The Vision of the Joule Centre is:

“To create a world-leading energy research centre in England’s North West which will significantly increase the region’s research capabilities in sustainable energy technologies and energy systems”

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The Joule Centre is a focal point for the North West to make a growing contribution to national and international challenges in the field of sustainable energy R&D and to attract an increasing share of available funding. It also aims to capitalise on the regional knowledge base in both academia and industry to develop an innovative R&D agenda that will support the work of the Northwest Energy Council and exploit opportunities in energy systems and technology development that are pertinent to the North West. ^[3]

Aims

The Joule Centre's aims are to:

Develop and deliver research which supports the work of the North West Energy Council on energy policy and economic development.

Stimulate interdisciplinary energy R&D in the NW across both public and private sectors.

Maximise the region’s participation in UK, EU and International R&D funding programmes.

Respond efficiently to the needs of the regional energy industry by providing technical advice and support.

Increase the region’s Research & Development capacity in the key disciplines and skills that are needed to deliver the research programme.^[4]

Research Themes

The Joule Centre has funded 39 research projects at Universities throughout the North West of England which come under four different themes:

Wet Renewables - This theme covered hydro, tidal and wave energy research projects. Projects undertaken as part of this theme included a study into the potential for building a tidal barrage across the river mersey and elsewhere in the UK, building a wave/current flume for research on offshore renewable energy devices.

Demand Reduction - This theme covered a variety of projects concerned with reducing consumption of energy rather than the more traditional focus on ways to increase generation. These projects ranged from developing low-carbon flight paths for planes to the further development of hydrogen fuel cells and high efficiency lighting for homes and offices.

Energy Supply Technologies - This theme covered projects to improve the cost and efficiency of some renewable energy generation technologies (solar power, wind power, hydrogen fuel cells). It also covered projects aimed at improving the efficiency and stability of the electrical network particularly focusing on problems caused by the integration of renewable energy sources into the network.

Seed Corn Grants - These were smaller grants which funded research projects into renewables, the electrical network and reducing energy consumption. The maximum value for these grants is £50,000

Board of Governers

The Joule Centre is presided over by a board of governers who amongst other things:

Review the centre's rules and procedures,
Encourage the submission of collaborative research proposals
Advise the centre on strategic matters
Help promote the centre
Assist with the arrangements of its Annual General Meeting

To see a full list of the board members and their duties follow this link: List of Governers and their duties

References

^ Energy online article[1]
^ BERR[2]
^ NWDA website[3]
^ NWDA website[4]

External links

[1] Energy online article[1]

[2] BERR[2]

[3] NWDA website[3]

[4] NWDA website[4]

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