COMMITTEE UPDATE

COPRI Member to Head Marine Renewable Energy Committee

COPRI mmeber Bil Stewart has stepped up to chair the new COPRI Marine Renewable Energy Committee, founded in July of this year. His background is in civil engineering, with a bachelor's degree from Aston University in England in 1972.  

He then changed his emphasis to ocean engineering and attended Cranfield University in 1974, graduating with a master's degree in offshore structures in 1975.  In 1979, he moved to Houston, Texas, and opened an office for the British company WS Atkins.  In 1983, he joined DNV as their VP in the Americas.  Three years later, he founded his own consulting company, Stewart Technology Associates (STA) in Houston. 

In the last four years, STA has supported clients with design and analysis of a wide range of marine renewable energy structures.   The purpose of the COPRI Marine Renewable Energy Committee is to study and disseminate information on the planning, design, construction, inspection, maintenance, operation, pollution control, and technical functioning of marine renewable energy facilities (MREFs) above and below the water, including:

• Environmental loading of MREFs.
• Foundations and anchoring of MREFs..
• Mooring systems for MREFs.
• Transmission cable burial and protection.
• Studying and reporting on federal, state, and regional efforts to plan and regulate the construction and maintenance activities of MREFs.
• Requirements for shore based facilities related to MREFs.
• Port and Harbor infrastructure to support the construction and maintenance of MREFs.

The committee intends to coordinate its activities directly with other committees of COPRI, especially the Coastal Engineering Practice, Ocean and Offshore Engineering, Ports and Harbors and Waterways Committees.   Any members interested in joining the committee and helping it achieve its goals are asked to contact Bil by email.  The committee has agreed to hold monthly teleconferences at 2:00 pm Eastern Time on the first Thursday of every month.  Javier Moncada of Berger ABAM has agreed to serve as committee secretary.