A typical day for the EnFAIT team features people working in disciplines as diverse as mechanical engineering, environmental science, data and digital analysis and advanced economic modelling. Locations can vary from bridges several hundred feet above estuaries, vessels braving fast-flowing tides to centres of academia across Europe. Each month we are challenging the consortium members to take a snapshot of how they work and bring EnFAIT to life. Let’s see how they answered this month’s photo challenge.

Name: Gary Connor

Role: Nova Innovation Co-Founder and Engineering Director

Photo challenge: My commute

Gary showed two trips to work this month: the first shows the turbine maintenance vessel on the Bluemull Sound travelling to the Shetland tidal array where he and a team of engineers lifted and redeployed the turbines for their annual maintenance. Reducing cost and upping tidal energy output through optimal maintenance regimes is one of the goals of the EnFAIT project, so the trip was also an opportunity to gather data at the site (see Sam Porteous’ blog from last month) and analyse the condition of the turbines after a year under the water.

Gary has worked in renewable technologies for more than 20 years and led the installation of the Shetland Array, the world’s first grid-connected tidal energy array. He brings a power systems, engineering and energy policy background to Nova’s tidal energy projects.

Scenic train and ferry trips up to Shetland are a regular part of life, but Gary’s routine commute is across the Forth Bridge to Nova Innovation’s office and manufacturing facility in the port of Leith.

Name: Dr Kaswar Mostafa

Role: Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of Edinburgh

Photo challenge: Arrival at work

Kaswar cycles to the University of Edinburgh which has an extensive network of cycle docking stations for staff and students. Kaswar took his Masters in engineering at Damascus University before going on to take an MSc in Renewable Energy and Distributed Generation and doctorate on direct drive wind turbines. His current research covers both EnFAIT and TipA, another EU Horizon 2020 project focussed on developing an innovative direct drive Power Take-Off (PTO) for a tidal turbine. The project has successfully completed its first phase of sea trials in February this year.

Name: Noor van Velzen

Role: Research Associate in Marine Energy, University of Edinburgh

Photo challenge: Tea and coffee

Noor met the challenge and got a shot of the DTOcean tool on her desktop in the School of Engineering at Edinburgh University. Noor comes from the Netherlands and gained her MSc in Sustainable Energy Technology at Delft University of Technology, having studied and worked in Australia, Portugal and Germany. Now based in Edinburgh, she is a member of the University’s Policy and Innovation Group , which is led by Henry Jeffrey. The team works on several ocean energy projects, including DTOceanPlus, also featuring Nova Innovation. By using the DTOcean tool in the real-world conditions of the EnFAIT project, the team feeds learnings into the next generation of open-source design tools.