Low carbon energy

Developing sustainable energy policy and technologies is crucial to providing a safe, reliable and low-cost energy supply for a growing global population. We innovate in every part of the energy system, from generation and storage, to regulation and end-user demand.

• Innovation
  We produce innovative solutions for providing new forms of energy generation, such as diamond batteries and state-of-the art solar technologies.
• Industrial engagement
  We work with a wide range of industrial partners in the low carbon energy sector, leading major collaborative programmes such as the South West Nuclear Hub and the Wind Blade Research Hub.
• International development
  We collaborate with nations across the globe to develop sustainable energy technologies for some of the world's poorest communities.

• The future of UK offshore wind power
  How do we optimise future investment decisions for offshore wind under climate change?
• Implementing low-cost and low-carbon distributed IoT sensors in farming
  How can we use sensors for crop health monitoring, optimised fertiliser deployment, early intervention, and environmental management in a low-cost, low-carbon way?
• Decentralised urban energy access
  Understanding the decentralised energy paradigm in urban Africa, through case studies in Uganda and The Gambia.
• Another Chernobyl?
  Implementing a low-cost environmental and aerosol monitoring provision inside the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone for seasonal and wild-fire event monitoring and risk management.
• Re-evaluating Chernobyl
  Improving our knowledge and understanding of the global radiological hazard associated with the world’s worst nuclear accident through an enhanced monitoring provision.
• Wind Blade Research Hub
  Adaptive structures present a novel solution for wind energy production.
• Designing offshore renewable energy systems
  How can we use innovative design to rethink our energy systems?
• Resolving the energy trilemma
  How do we redress the balance between energy security, environmental sustainability and social impact?
• Getting water, sanitation and energy to marginalised communities
  As urban populations continue to expand worldwide, enabling universal access to vital services becomes an ever-more pressing challenge.
• Exploring peer-to-peer ‘free trade’ in excess energy
  Households and businesses that generate their own power through micro-renewables, such as solar panels and wind turbines, may soon be able to decide where to distribute their extra energy using ‘sharing platform’ technology.
• Locally manufactured hydropower
  Improving the reliability of micro-hydropower in Nepal through changes to design, manufacture and project implementation
• Riding sunbeams
  Riding Sunbeams seeks to connect solar PV directly into the UK’s electrified rail network to power trains. Direct supply of solar power traction to railway systems has never been done before, neither in the UK nor anywhere else in the world. Its potential to decarbonize railways is huge.
• Nuclear plant life extension to meet UK electricity demand
  Testing the structural behaviour of nuclear reactor cores in the case of a seismic event.
• ‘Diamond-age’ of power generation as nuclear batteries developed
  New technology has been developed that uses nuclear waste to generate electricity in a nuclear-powered battery.
• Renewable energy microgrids
  Designing a methodology and a micro-grid system that could help redress energy imbalances across the world.
• Aviation, the pandemic and carbon emissions
  What will be the role of the aviation sector in a 'green recovery' and how has the pandemic changed this?
• Sensor-driven electronics could provide lasting power for less
  How can we reduce the power drain when technology is left on standby?
• Humanitarian energy access
  Investigating the market-based delivery of solar home systems in Rwanda refugee camps.
• Solar technologies
  We specialise in Photovoltaic Technology based on Earth Abundant Materials (PVTEAM) & Energy and the physical sciences: Beta-enhanced thermionic energy converters and nuclear batteries employing nanostructured diamond electrodes.
• Consolidating global knowledge on hazardous Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant particulate
  What can be done to better understand nuclear fall-out and associated risk? And how can this information be used to repopulate affected areas?