The Energy Engineering Team from the UK Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) come to visit University of Southampton Laboratory Facilities

On Monday 27th October, the Energy Engineering Team from the UK Government Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) came to visit some of the University of Southampton laboratory facilities in the Energy Engineering space. This visit was organised by Dr Katherine Kwa, a RAEng Research Fellow who is currently on a science policy secondment to the DESNZ Energy Engineering Team. Her secondment was enabled by an EPSRC Impact Acceleration Account (IAA) award and is supported by the Southampton Marine and Maritime Institute (SMMI) and the Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng).

The DESNZ Energy Engineering Team spent a full day at the University of Southampton. The day started at the National Infrastructure Laboratory . Dr Jorge Mendoza-Ulloa gave a tour of the Geotechnical Centrifuge Facility with its high-g modelling capabilities for infrastructure applications. Next was the Zepler Institute Cleanrooms at the Optoelectronics Research Centre, which included a variety of facilities for electronics, photonics and nanotechnology and capabilities in supporting research and enterprise in planar wafer and optical fibres. Professor Austin Taranta, Dr Ramsey Selim and Christopher Craig ran the tour. The rest of the morning was spent at the Tony Davies High Voltage Laboratory with Dr George Callendar and Professor Paul Lewin, who gave the Energy Engineering Team a tour of the centre for dielectric materials, insulation systems, high voltage phenomena and renewables integration for a sustainable electric grid.

The Energy Engineering Team visited the National Oceanography Centre Southampton (NOCS) in the afternoon. Jo Shannon, Dr Aled Evans, Dr Matthew Cooper, Dr Hanif Santyabudhi Sutiyoso shared their experimental work and expertise on geological hydrogen, carbon storage and chemical and isotopic analysis of rock materials within the University's Centre for Earth Research and Analysis Southampton (CERAS) Laboratories and the NOC Rock Physics Laboratory. The day ended with a tour of the National Oceanography Centre (NOC) Sensors and Marine Autonomous Robotic Systems (MARS) Laboratories with Dr Patricia Lopez, where the Energy Engineering Team were given a tour of the range of ocean sensors that are available to the marine science community.

The DESNZ Energy Engineering Team thoroughly enjoyed the visit. They found the topics covered very useful and relevant. It was also an excellent opportunity for the University of Southampton to share the depth and breadth of its research expertise and facilities within the Energy Engineering space.