The Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen has long been recognised as a world leader in marine renewable energy research.  The Centre for Research in Energy and the Environment (CRE+E) has received substantial research funding for tidal energy projects and was a key player in the Sound of Islay tidal array project now run by Scottish Power Renewables.  CRE+E is involved in energy research projects at local, national and international level and is currently developing funding and commercial opportunities around the world.

Maintaining its speciality in marine renewables, the expanding research team is involved in energy resource assessment, novel turbine design, research into structurally significant turbulence, sediment distribution and the development of a subsea support structure for areas of extreme tidal currents.

Beyond marine we have just completed a study of sustainable energy resource modelling for a 2000 home development in Aberdeenshire using bespoke software created at RGU and have strong capability in numerical analysis using Fluent, Matlab, etc. 

A significant new arrival at the university is CUSP, the Centre for Understanding Sustainable Practice, which has received £0.5million funding to investigate the behaviour change  implications of sustainable development including the social and business demands of using new technologies and intelligent buildings.

The University now includes renewable energy within the study of options for its engineering undergraduates, and the innovative ‘Energy Portfolio’ of MSc.  Courses combine environmental engineering with energy exploration.  We expect that 2012 will see the introduction of a suite of multi-disciplinary sustainable development MSc’s for engineering, art, architecture, business and health.

For further information contact:
Dr Alan Owen
School of Engineering
The Robert Gordon University
Schoolhill
Aberdeen
AB10 1FR

T: +44 (0)1224 262360
E: a.owen@rgu.ac.uk
www.rgu.ac.uk