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.
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