Blyth and Newcastle host EUREC's 75th College of Members

Few places in Europe carry more symbolic weight for offshore wind than Blyth, a coastal town in northeast England that in 2000 hosted the world's first offshore wind farm. It is here, at the National Renewable Energy Centre and the headquarters of ORE Catapult, the UK's principal technology acceleration centre for offshore renewables, that EUREC has chosen to hold the internal affairs sessions of its 75th College of Members on 30 June 2026.

Wolfram Sparber, Director of Eurac Research's Institute for Renewable Energy and President of EUREC, the Association of European Renewable Energy Research Centres, will chair the meeting's opening session and present a review of EU energy modelling and emerging disruptive technologies with his presentation “Reflections of EU energy development and disruptive technologies”.

The choice of Blyth as a venue reflects the broader focus of the two-day event: offshore wind sits at the heart of both days' agenda. On 1 July, proceedings continue at Northumbria University's Great Hall in Newcastle with a full-day Offshore Wind Symposium. Sparber will open the event by introducing EUREC and its network to attendees and will then moderate a panel discussion bringing together researchers from across Europe to examine the current state and future conditions for floating offshore wind technology.

The symposium covers a range of topics spanning floating wind platform hydrodynamics, offshore wind as critical grid infrastructure, cybersecurity in autonomous energy systems, and the circular economy potential of thermoplastic wind turbine blades.