OPINION

SEPTEMBER 2008 | VOLUME 11 | NUMBER 948

Power to the People?

On the 27th May 2008 Britain suffered its worst

blackouts for more than a decade, with half a million

people hit by unscheduled power cuts. The reason?

It depends on who you believe. The explanations

vary from ‘a gigantic coincidence’, ‘exceptional

circumstances’, ‘a freak incident’ to a simple

‘instrumentation problem’. The primary reason

was an unscheduled outage at both Sizewell B and

Longannet power stations. These outages caused

inconvenience to thousands and forced the price of

wholesale electricity up 35% to a new record high.

It also clearly demonstrated the fragility of the UK

electricity network which would target having a 20%

capacity margin to cope with such events.

Fortunately, the impact on domestic users, business,

and public services was limited, but what is of

additional concern is that this event occurred at a

time of year when electricity consumption was not

excessive and there were no extreme weather events

contributing to the problem.

The fact is, the UK is paying for its lack of major

investment in its electricity generation, transmission,

and distribution infrastructure over the last 30 years.

This is against a background where the UK and

global energy landscape is changing dramatically.

Climate change is now widely accepted and the

drive to reduce CO2 emissions has never been fiercer

or taken more seriously. We face record oil prices

fast approaching $150 per barrel, and fuel poverty

and security of supply are now a reality.

While this may seem rather depressing, there are a

number of silver linings to this cloud, not least the

market opportunities that are being created within

the energy sector and its associated supply chain.

As is often the case, the market is being driven by

policy. Within the EU, the UK’s renewables targets

are among the toughest in Europe. We have a

target to increase our share of energy produced

by renewable sources from the current level of

2% to 15% by 2020. Much of this will have to

come from electricity and it is possible that the

UK may have to increase its share of electricity

produced by renewable sources from today’s level

of 5% to 30-40% by 2020. Regarding security of

supply, we will have to install around 35 GW of new

generating plant in the next 20 years, primarily to

replace our ageing fossil and nuclear plants.

All this is presenting the UK with unprecedented

growth in the power generation sector and a major

opportunity for its supply chain from research and

development, through to manufacturers and end

users. This situation is being mirrored in other parts

of the world, putting pressure on global supply

chains, but unlike previous ‘bull’ markets, like the

‘dash for gas’ in the 1990’s, this thirst for ‘clean

energy’ is likely to be here for decades to come and

on a global scale. The International Energy Agency

forecasts that $20 trillion of investment will be

needed to meet these challenges by 2030.

While the technologies adopted to address these

challenges will be dependent on geography, politics,

and economics, it is becoming easier to predict

which technologies will be needed and where. Like

many countries, the UK has the stated intention to

adopt a balanced portfolio approach, comprising

clean fossil, renewables and nuclear.

All this, and various government targets and

potential new policy/legislative incentives, will

hopefully provide the confidence for organizations

along the supply chain to make the necessary

financial investments to bring the UK back to a

leading position. We have the opportunity to be

amongst the world leaders in renewable energy

technologies, particularly offshore wind and marine.

In addition, the announcement of the first UK full

scale Carbon Capture and Storage demonstration

project and a potential renaissance of nuclear power,

should provide major opportunities for UK business

both now and in the future.

Undoubtedly, the materials sector in the UK has

a major role to play in the development of a low

carbon energy landscape. Materials engineering is

an underpinning technology which will help provide

solutions to many challenges throughout the energy

innovation chain from extraction of energy sources,

through to generation, supply and use. Despite the

recent lack of investment, the UK has managed to

maintain world-class expertise in materials research

and development relevant to the energy sector,

such as high temperature materials, coatings,

lightweight materials and materials modelling. It

has also retained a reasonable level of high added

value manufacturing expertise that could be

developed and expanded to cope with new market

opportunities, given the right business environment.

To ensure we maximize the benefit to the UK,

we need to develop a coordinated strategy which

includes a sustainable capital investment program,

a research and development framework, a skills

development program, and long term funding. The

good news is that the Government and other bodies

are recognizing the need to develop the energy

supply chain and an associated capacity in research

and development to meet both the UK and global

energy targets. The Energy Materials Working Group

of Materials UK (www.matuk.co.uk/energy.htm) have

delivered a Strategic Research Agenda, highlighting

priority areas of research and development.

These are exciting times that represent a major

opportunity for the UK. I would make a plea that as

a materials community we work together to take

advantage of it.

Derek Allen, | Chairman of Materials UK, Energy Working Group | derek.allen@power.alstom.com

The fragility of our energy infrastructure and an emphasis on climate change provide new business opportunities for materials science.

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