Advances in Offshore Wind Operations & Maintenance and their Impact on Levelised Cost of Energy

This seminar has been postponed to Michaelmas Term.

Professor Alan Lowdon, OBE

Operations & Maintenance (O&M) costs comprise approximately 28% of the levelised  cost of energy (LCOE) emanating from offshore wind farms. O&M defines the enduring and costly activity which underpins the performance of these ocean-based assets over their lifetime. The presentation will focus on the  composition and dominant logic of LCOE, and the advances in O&M practices and technologies to manage offshore wind systems in an efficient and optimal way. The talk will touch upon the move to smart asset management and the migration away from high-risk human intervention in O&M practices. This will amplify the importance of data generation and interpretive analysis and the use of remote sensing, UAV, and robotic technologies in the O&M process.

Alan has over 30 years’ experience of the international energy and utilities markets. He has worked for major, asset-intensive corporations such as Rolls Royce, British Gas, Shell, and Suez, as well as running university spinout companies and occupying senior roles in research & technology organisations, including Director of Technology & Innovation for the U.K. National Renewable Energy Center and interim/set-up CEO for the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult.

In the January 2022 New Year's Honours list, Alan was awarded an OBE for Services to U.K.-US Offshore Wind Collaboration' and his current portfolio of interests includes part-time Director of Strategic Development at the National Offshore Wind Institute, New Bedford, USA, Professor in Practice at Durham University Energy Institute and cleantech entrepreneur-in-residence to the UK Government’s Global Entrepreneur Programme (GEP). Alan is also a reviewer for Innovate UK and an advisor to the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Alan recently joined Leeds University spin-out, Acuity Robotics, as part-time Executive Chair.