The University of Hull’s geographic location helps to explain its strengths in renewable energies, overseen by the Centre for Adaptive Science and Sustainability. The region is home to two of the UK’s largest offshore wind farms (the Humber Gateway and Westernmost Rough) and the three largest round offshore wind development zones (Dogger Bank, Hornsea and Norfolk Bank). The University of Hull has accordingly pioneered a number of improvements in the cost-effectiveness, reliability and availability of large-scale wind turbine systems in the UK, receiving funding to the value of £340,000 from the EPRC’s Sustainable Power Generation and Supply programme for its work. The coastal location of the University has simultaneously given its researchers the opportunity to contribute to the design of turbines to capture tidal power. Hull’s work on photovoltaics is perhaps less attributable to the local climate, but is nonetheless at the cutting edge of renewable energy research. The organophotonics group has developed semiconducting liquid crystals, amenable to large-area low-cost processing to produce organic solar cells. Meanwhile, Hull’s engineers are investigating thermophotovoltaic cells, which use infrared (heat) radiation rather than visible light and can therefore be used in conjunction with traditional solar cells to increase their efficiency.

While the White Rose universities are at the forefront of renewable energy research, Yorkshire remains a major centre for power generation from fossil fuels. Hull is investing heavily in carbon capture and utilisation. The University focuses on adapting naturally occurring processes, particularly sequestering dissolved CO2 in freshwater systems into the mineral calcite. Hull also leads a White Rose project to integrate carbon capture with the consortium’s expertise in renewable energy and is currently developing a solar photoelectrochemical cell to convert CO2 to fuels such as methanol.

Research at the University of Hull looks beyond energy systems to other mechanisms and impacts of transitioning to a low carbon economy. Its regional work on sustainable cities explores how restructuring for a green economy will affect labour markets and development patterns in Yorkshire cities and has helped inform the new Local Enterprise Partnerships. The University boasts one of the pre-eminent researchers in the world on the subject of sustainable cities: the Honorary Professor David Satterthwaite who was previously Director of the Human Settlements Group at the International Institute for the Environment and Development and is currently the coordinating lead author for the Chapter on Adapting Cities in the IPCC’s Fifth Assessment.

The University of Hull has led a number of significant other projects on the relationship between economic activity and the natural environment. The Institute for Estuarine and Coastal Studies, for example, generates more than £1m a year in research funding from industry, government bodies and the EU. It is notably serving as the lead UK partner for a pan-European project on tidal river development. Meanwhile, the Logistics Institute is involved in Low Carbon Shipping: A Systems Approach, a £1.6m Research Council-funded project aimed at reducing emissions from the shipping industry at all stages. Hull is focused on mapping the maritime transport network and examining the environmental impact of port activities. The University of Hull is particularly promoting a new model of distribution, ‘nearporting’, based on bringing goods into the port nearest the chosen distribution centre to in order to reduce the emissions intensity of transportation. In this way, the University of Hull is both promoting new technologies and adapting existing infrastructures and practices to promote sustainable economic growth.