Affiliation
:
University of Southampton
Title
:
Professor
Lecture
:
Sustainable Energy across Scales
Short Bio |
Professor AbuBakr S Bahaj is Head of the 55 strong Energy & Climate Change Division (ECCD) at the University of Southampton, where he completed his PhD in 1982, progressing from a researcher to a Personal Chair in Sustainable Energy. For more than 25 years, Professor Bahaj has pioneered sustainable energy research, and established the energy theme within the University by creation of the Sustainable Energy Research Group (SERG) www.energy.soton.ac.uk considered to be one of the UK’s leading University-based research groups in renewable energy and energy demand reduction. The aims of ECCD and SERG are to promote and execute fundamental and applied research and pre-industrial development in the areas of sustainable energy resources, their technologies, improvements in energy efficiency and assessment of the impact of climate change on buildings. This work also includes study of local communities(urban and rural) and cities encompassing urban energy systems, microgeneration technologies, demand reduction, utilising ICT in the monitoring of building performance and user behaviour. |
Abstract |
Over the last few decades, sustainable energy technologies have become a critical part and a major contributor to the global supply mix especially in the electricity sector. This is driven by our desire to use sustainable resources to reduce pollution emanating from the current use of fossil fuels, increasing resource security through local generation, and the creation of new industries and jobs. Although these technologies are in some cases still driven by what is termed as support mechanisms or subsidies,the sustainable or renewable energy industry is maturing, with huge investments being ploughed into it globally. Global investment in renewable power and fuels (excluding large hydro-electric projects) was around US$270.2 billion in 2014, nearly 17% higher than the previous year. A large proportion of the funds have targeted solar and wind power, and for the first time the overall investment exceeded that for traditional fossil fuels. Renewable energy is now a major industry sector that is likely to grow further, displacing and augmenting traditional electricity generation facilities as we progress in this century. This talk will address these technologies and will give a discourse of status, applicabilityand policy implications, covering solar, wind, and marine energy.
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