Symposium 2025: Sustainable energy

Driving the Energy Transition through Innovation

The energy industry stands at the heart of one of the greatest transformations of our time. Electrification, decentralised generation, and the integration of renewables are reshaping the landscape. At the same time, volatile energy prices, resource scarcity, and the growing demand for sustainability are forcing companies to rethink how they operate. They must enhance efficiency, reduce dependency on scarce materials, and ensure reliability and safety — all while keeping energy affordable.

Our demos show how we can support companies in delivering stable, affordable, and sustainable power. From smarter power systems to advanced modelling, design and control: start innovating with confidence.

Building Reliable and Efficient Energy Systems

As renewable generation grows and electrification expands across transport and industry, system reliability becomes a strategic priority. Components must deliver consistent performance under demanding conditions while minimising downtime and maintenance costs.

Our vision-assisted condition monitoring for gearboxes combines real-time visual inspection with AI-enhanced vibration analysis to arrive at earlier and more precise fault detection. In wind turbines or other rotating energy systems, this means longer component life and fewer costly failures.

Similarly, our assessment tool for bearing current mitigation strategies helps engineers predict and prevent bearing current issues in electric drivetrains — a growing concern in high-power applications such as generators, e-drives, and industrial motors. By using a high-frequency electrical model, the tool identifies the most effective mitigation strategy in the design stage, avoiding expensive trial-and-error and extending the lifetime of critical components.

Our hybrid bearing load and condition monitoring using optical fibre sensors further advances reliability. The ability to measure continuously and detect in advance any anomaly in a cost-effective way. This fibre-optic approach measures strain, temperature, and vibration across bearing structures without interference from electromagnetic noise. It provides detailed health indicators and load estimates. A cost-effective way to obtain non-invasive and continuous monitoring of dynamic systems with a single sensor.

Energy Efficiency and Sustainability

The energy transition depends not only on cleaner generation but also on smarter management and use of energy. To meet future targets, companies must optimise how energy is stored, distributed, and consumed.

Our Energy Management System (EMS) for Hybrid Energy Storage Systems (HESS) demonstrates how hybrid battery configurations combining high-power and high-energy cells can balance performance, cost, and lifetime. The EMS coordinates energy flow between cell types using novel algorithms, achieving up to 20% higher power density, lower system cost, and extended battery life. The technology is ready to be implemented in marine and heavy-duty mobility applications. But this approach proves equally valuable for stationary energy storage: helping stabilise grids and support renewable integration.

At the same time, managing thermal energy effectively is becoming increasingly crucial. In our Thermal Energy Management research, we explore new cooling and lubrication architectures using dielectric fluids. These fluids can cool electrical components directly, enabling up to 50% higher power density compared to standard water-based systems. For stationary energy systems smarter thermal management leads to higher energy efficiency and reduced operational risk.

Finally our novel concept for electrical excitation of the rotor in a synchronous machine (EESM) eliminates the need for permanent magnets while maintaining power density and reliability. This innovation reduces dependency on rare earth materials, increases sustainability, and lowers exposure to supply-chain risks, offering manufacturers a more circular and sustainable alternative.

Dynamic operations

As energy systems become more complex, companies need tools that help them manage operations dynamically. Balancing resources, capacity, and fluctuating inputs such as renewable generation and market demand has become a pivotal part of operations.

Our Planning & Scheduling technology demonstrates how AI-driven algorithms can optimise workflows in real time, taking into account resource availability, energy costs, and operational constraints. By continuously reconciling these factors, it enables more resilient, cost-effective operations.

It is challenging to cut costs and still ensure quality and reliability for critical components used in energy systems. Our resonant and visual testing for product control demonstrates how resonant testing provides a vibrational fingerprint of manufactured parts. Manufacturing defects (such as porosity, entrapped air pockets, cracks etc.) affect the vibrational fingerprint of a part. Now, these defects can be detected within seconds, meaning fast quality assurance and waste reduction.