Power in the Economy: Affordable engineering & technology solutions November 16, 2009

The UK energy system is under increasing pressure and requires substantial upgrading and replacement to tackle the combined challenges of climate change (principally Carbon Dioxide emissions), energy affordability and security of supply. Addressing these challenges requires changes to the UK power generation, transmission and distribution systems and, critically, demands that we ensure that every unit of energy is used as efficiently as possible and forms part of a long-term sustainable system. We will only properly achieve this if all sectors are involved – Power, Heat, Transport and their supporting infrastructures.

UK Government has estimated that an investment of around £100bn will be required to reach the UK target for 15% of all energy to come from renewable sources by 2020. Currently less than 3% comes from renewable sources. Further major investments will also be necessary to reach the 2050 UK target of reducing CO2 emissions by 80%. The majority of this will be in Engineering, Technology, Manufacturing, Installation and Operation of equipment and systems.

In the UK the Energy Technologies Institute (ETI) has been set-up to accelerate the development of engineering solutions for affordable, reliable and clean energy systems for power, heat and transport. The ETI offers a unique development capability by leveraging the joint skills, capabilities and funding capacity of its Members - Global Industry groups and the UK Government – with project participants.

This presentation will highlight the overriding issues and opportunities in achieving affordable delivery of low carbon, sustainable energy and will summarise the ETI Technology Strategy – focusing particularly on offshore renewables, carbon capture and storage, transport, distributed energy and energy networks. The drivers for widespread change will be covered along with some of the potential engineering solutions focusing on the critical aspects of affordability, the potential UK economic benefits and the associated need for skills development.

David Clarke joined the Energy Technologies Institute as Chief Executive Officer in January 2008 from his previous role as Head of Technology Strategy at Rolls-Royce plc.

He has been involved in collaborative research and development of advanced technologies for over 20 years, leading a range of research groups including Rolls-Royce’s Advanced Materials development activities and its corporate Strategic Research Centre. With the latter group he led the evaluation and development of new technology opportunities in fields as diverse as fuel cells, electrical propulsion technologies and advanced computational diagnostics.

He has also been a member of EPSRC Council and is a member of the North West Science Council and the UK Energy Research Partnership.

David graduated from the University of Surrey with a BSc in Materials Technology and a PhD in Composite Materials. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Materials, Metals and Mining, a Fellow of the Energy Institute and a Chartered Engineer.
Further information

Doors open for registration and coffee at 6pm. The meeting starts at 6.30pm and will be followed by a drinks reception at 8pm and an optional discussion dinner at 8.30pm. The discussion dinner will be held under the Chatham House Rule.

Book by completing the online form and follow with payment online or by post. The meeting fee for R&D Society members is £20. For non-members and guests the meeting fee is £40. The dinner is an additional £45 on either meeting fee.

You're welcome to mark yourself as coming here, but please book online.

Official Website: http://www.rdsoc.org/09L8.html