Energy and the Environment

Conservative estimates suggest that world power consumption will rise from the current 14 terawatt (TW) to 30 TW by 2050.  At the same time the total consumption of oil and gas will begin to fall by 2030 at the latest, due to dwindling reserves and increasing costs. In the light of this a very significant increase in the use of nuclear, coal and renewable energy
is inevitable.
 

Nate Lewis, Caltech 2006

The link between climate change and green house gases released when fossil fuels are burned is now well established, and the management of climate change is an international problem of growing importance.

The provision of clean energy resources is a key challenge facing scientific research both nationally and globally. Significant long-term investment in fundamental energy research is already planned and broadly targeted towards areas such as:

• The development of renewable energy resources
• The clean burning of coal
• The safe and reliable provision of nuclear energy including the long-term management of nuclear materials
• Fusion energy – in the long-term

The Science & Technology Facilities Council (STFC) large scale facilities are significant national and international assets which, in their own right, have a substantial role to play in the characterisation of materials associated with energy related systems - not only for the improvement of materials for existing energy technologies, but also in the development of those for the next generation of energy sources. What makes STFC’s position truly unique is the co-location of their large facilities, including core capabilities in instrument and technology design, with a critical mass of world-leading theory, modelling and simulation capability in the Computational Science and Engineering Department at Daresbury. The STFC believes that the scale of this combined activity within a single organisation is unique.