• Question: Which technology / form of producing energy do you think will be the most important in reducing carbon emissions?

    Asked by anon-257995 on 25 Jun 2020.
    • Photo: Richard Fielder

      Richard Fielder answered on 25 Jun 2020:

      It will have to be a mix of different things, but certainly mainly renewables. Different places have different sources of energy available, so no current technology can meet our needs everywhere. And all power sources have their own problems, including potentially major environmental ones, so rolling them out without careful planning could end up just replacing our current problems with new ones if we’re not careful.

      There’s also a good argument that having at least some large power plants like nuclear and biomass is useful, since many renewables are not entirely reliable. Battery storage can help with that, but batteries again come with their own environmental issues.

      What seems pretty clear is that in the past, we’ve tended to use a single power source as much as possible – wood, then coal, then oil and gas – based on whatever is cheapest and most convenient. In the future, we’re going to want to use a mix of different sources, making sure to carefully think about what is best overall in any particular situation. We don’t know exactly what the best solution will be, but we do know we need to think about it a lot more than has been done in the past.

    • Photo: Scott Lawrie

      Scott Lawrie answered on 26 Jun 2020:

      I think it’s important to use a mix of sources, because they all come with drawbacks. I think the majority of our power should come from renewables, however it’s good to have a constant, reliable level of electricity available from something like nuclear power plants. Nuclear fission is clean, safe and very reliable, so will keep our lights on on a cloudy, windless day!

    • Photo: Dipendra Mistry

      Dipendra Mistry answered on 26 Jun 2020:

      Hi Sam,

      A great question, and one that is very important now and for the scientists of tomorrow!

      In my opinion there will be a mixture of renewable tech which will help us to lower our carbon emissions and environmental impact. In the short term (next 5 years) I expect solar, wind and carbon capture to play a large role as alot of investment has already gone into these areas. Whereas, in the longer term >10yrs I anticipate that nuclear fusion (generating energy in a controlled way like our Sun) will be a huge game changer.

      Thanks,
      Dipendra

    • Photo: Alex Leide

      Alex Leide answered on 26 Jun 2020:

      it’s a really good question and quite a complicated answer! Electricity is quite simple to decarbonise with wind, solar, nuclear, and batteries in the electricity grid.
      But there is also heat, industry, and transport which are much more difficult to decarbonise. Electric cars and bikes are quite simple, but electric planes are a looong way away and container ships and big lorries are impractical to be electric so we need to decarbonise using some other fuels (hydrogen or synthetic fuels).
      Most buildings are heated with gas boilers, and a lot of industries like steel making, recycling, making hydrogen etc. need a lot of heat and high temperatures which creates a lot of CO2.
      Nuclear reactors make heat directly, so are much more efficient for decarbonising heat than turning electricity from solar or wind into heat. Some new nuclear reactor designs will make hot gas around 1000C which is really useful for lots of industries. Then once it has cooled down a bit, this could heat water for your radiators at home in a district heating system.

    • Photo: Susan Cartwright

      Susan Cartwright answered on 29 Jun 2020:

      I don’t think it’s going to be one thing. Different technologies work for different places: solar power is much more appropriate for California than it is for the Orkney Islands, for example. Most renewables have the problem that they are available when they are available (e.g. when the Sun is shining, or when the wind is blowing), which is not necessarily when you need them, so energy storage technologies are absolutely critical for making best use of renewable energy. Nuclear power would be an effective way of handling “base load” – that’s the part of the energy demand that does not change much with time – but we would need to overcome the present distrust of nuclear power, and/or solve the practical problems of nuclear fusion. Probably active reduction of carbon – carbon capture and storage — will also be needed, because I don’t think we are on track to reach zero carbon quickly enough.

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