Future Sources of Energy
Background
| UKERC's Future Sources of Energy (FSE) theme focused on a number of energy supply technologies which have yet to achieve mature commercial status. The theme leader was Professor Robin Wallace, the head of the Institute for Energy Systems in the School of Engineering and Electronics, University of Edinburgh. Research Topics included:
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At the same time, a number of common issues can be identified. For example, R&D activity is often dispersed across multiple research groups, commercial developers, suppliers and investors.
Co-ordination of R&D through research networks may be limited, and policy and regulatory support for innovation fragmented. Links across different technology domains are generally weak, so that opportunities for cross-technology synergies may be missed. There is also a need for appropriate mechanisms for public and community engagement.
Research Activity
FSE theme members were involved in a range of research activities. As part of the development of UKERC's Research Atlas, Landscapes of current research activity for each technology topic were compiled. The landscape documents included a detailed listing of funding streams, research networks and UK capabilities.For a number of FSE Topics, including Solar PV, Marine, CCS and Nuclear Fission, original peer-reviewed Roadmaps were developed. Reviews of existing Roadmaps were carried out for all FSE topics.
As well as contributing to UKERC's Research Atlas, FSE theme members participated in a number of cross-disciplinary research activities, addressing topics such as learning rates and learning effects, micro-generation and life cycle analysis of energy technologies.