Professor William Leithead
Emeritus Professor
Electronic and Electrical Engineering
Personal statement
My areas of expertise are Control Engineering and Wind Energy Systems with particular focus on the conceptual design of wind turbines and wind turbine and farm control system design. My research leadership roles include head of the Wind Energy Research Group at Strathclyde and Director of the Industrial Control Centre. The Wind Energy Research Group has more than 70 PhD students and Research Assistants. Additionally, I am Director of the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Wind Energy Systems, which is hosted by Strathclyde, and its successor, the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Wind and Marine Energy Systems, and I Chair the EPSRC Supergen Wind Energy Hub. I am, also, on the Executive Committee of the EPSRC Industrial Doctoral Centre in Offshore Renewable Energy, which is a partnership between Strathclyde, Edinburgh and Exeter Universities.
I am actively involved with many national and international wind energy research and policy committees including the European Academy of Wind Energy Executive Committee, European Energy Alliance Joint Programme Wind Steering Committee and ORECatapult Research Advisory Group.
Publications
- Effect of blade inclination angle for straight-bladed vertical-axis wind turbines
- Morgan Laurence, Amiri Abbas Kazemi, Leithead William, Carroll James
- Wind Energy Science Vol 10, pp. 381-399 (2025)
- https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-10-381-2025
- Controller design for the X-Rotor offshore wind turbine concept
- Recalde-Camacho L, Leithead W, Morgan L, Kazemi Amiri A
- Journal of Physics: Conference Series Vol 2767 (2024)
- https://doi.org/10.1088/1742-6596/2767/3/032050
- On the use of secondary rotors for vertical axis wind turbine power take off
- Morgan Laurence, Leithead William, Carroll James
- Wind Energy Vol 27, pp. 569-582 (2024)
- https://doi.org/10.1002/we.2901
- Controller re-tuning for wind turbines with aero elastically tailored blade configurations
- Recalde Camacho Luis, Yue Hong, Leithead Bill
- Wind Energy Science Conference 2024 (2023)
- A generic approach to wind farm control and the power adjusting controller
- Stock Adam, Leithead William
- Wind Energy Vol 25, pp. 1735-1757 (2022)
- https://doi.org/10.1002/we.2765
- A review of operations and maintenance modelling with considerations for novel wind turbine concepts
- McMorland Jade, Flannigan Callum, Carroll James, Collu Maurizio, McMillan David, Leithead William, Coraddu Andrea
- Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews Vol 165 (2022)
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2022.112581
Research Interests
- In Control his research interests include linear systems theory and analysis and nonlinear system modelling and identification;
- In Wind Energy his research interests include the dynamic analysis of wind turbines and wind farms, their dynamic modelling and simulation, control system design and optimisation.
Professional Activities
- SUPERGEN WIND HLG/EPSRC Meeting (Event)
- Chair
- 11/4/2016
- SUPERGEN Wind Hub General Board Meeting at Fife Renewables Innovation Centre, Leven, Fife (Event)
- Chair
- 29/2/2016
- 14h NOWITECH Full Scientific Committee (Event)
- Member
- 19/1/2016
- SUPERGEN Poster Session followed by SUPERGEN PI Round Table meeting
- Contributor
- 19/11/2015
- WINDTRUST Workshop
- Organiser
- 18/11/2015
- NORCOWE Board Meeting (External organisation)
- Member
- 11/2015
Projects
- Industrial CASE Account - University of Strathclyde 2021 | Fojcik, Piotr
- Hart, Edward John (Principal Investigator) Leithead, Bill (Co-investigator) Fojcik, Piotr (Research Co-investigator)
- 01-Jan-2022 - 01-Jan-2026
- WindEurope Digitalisation Project
- Carroll, James (Principal Investigator) Infield, David (Co-investigator) Leithead, Bill (Co-investigator)
- 01-Jan-2022 - 31-Jan-2023
- Holistic Advanced Prototyping and Interfacing for Wave Energy Control
- Leithead, Bill (Principal Investigator) Campos-Gaona, David (Co-investigator) McDonald, Alasdair (Co-investigator) Stock, Adam (Research Co-investigator)
- 06-Jan-2021 - 30-Jan-2025
- XROTOR (H2020 LC SC3) X-Shaped Radical Offshore Wind Turbine For Overall Cost Of Energy Reduction'
- Leithead, Bill (Principal Investigator) Allan, Grant (Co-investigator) Anaya-Lara, Olimpo (Co-investigator) Carroll, James (Co-investigator) Jamieson, Peter (Co-investigator) Stock, Adam (Co-investigator) Williamson, Jack (Researcher)
- 01-Jan-2021 - 31-Jan-2023
- KTP - Natural Power. Develop a wind turbine generator (WTG) monitoring solution for novel control and extended life operations.
- Stock, Adam (Principal Investigator) Kazemi Amiri, Abbas (Co-investigator) Leithead, Bill (Co-investigator)
- 16-Jan-2020 - 15-Jan-2022
- EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Wind and Marine Energy Systems and Structures
- Carroll, James (Principal Investigator) Carroll, James (Principal Investigator) Leithead, Bill (Principal Investigator) Brennan, Feargal (Co-investigator) Brennan, Feargal (Co-investigator) Campos-Gaona, David (Co-investigator) Carroll, James (Co-investigator) Jamieson, Peter (Co-investigator) Kolios, Athanasios (Co-investigator) Kolios, Athanasios (Co-investigator) Leithead, Bill (Co-investigator) Leithead, Bill (Co-investigator) McDonald, Alasdair (Co-investigator) McDonald, Alasdair (Co-investigator) Mehmanparast, Ali (Co-investigator)
- 01-Jan-2019 - 30-Jan-2027
Contact
Professor
William
Leithead
Emeritus Professor
Electronic and Electrical Engineering
Email: w.leithead@strath.ac.uk
Tel: 548 2378