Sidmouth Climate Week >>> How low can we go? Electricity, emissions and costs

Earlier this afternoon, Prof Richard Green of Imperial College talked about energy:
Futures Forum: Sidmouth Climate Week: Saturday 25th March >>> How low can energy costs get? How can communities get control of their energy? And how can we get to low-carbon energy?

He focussed particularly on the work he's been involved in - which is considerable.

For example, Prof Green appeared recently at a Lords Committee on The Price of Power: Reforming the Electricity Market:

Professor Richard Green, Professor of Sustainable Energy Business at Imperial College, stated that the 2050 carbon target requires “transformative change across several sub-sectors of energy production and use. The largest in scale are the power sector, transport … and the heat sector.”163 The Drax Group noted that:

“Whilst the UK has made steady progress in recent years decarbonising the power sector, by comparison the heat and transport sectors continue to lag behind.”164


House of Lords - The Price of Power: Reforming the Electricity Market - Economic Affairs Committee

And he has been involved in research into the dramatic recent changes in our energy sources:

Imperial researchers find half of Britain's electricity is now low carbon

by Neasan O'Neill17 November 2016






A new website and report from researchers at Imperial College London is tracking the evolution of Britain's electricity market.

A new quarterly report, Electric Insights from Dr Iain Staffell of the Centre of Environmental Policy, is highlighting some important changes in Britain’s electricity system. The first report shows that low-carbon energy sources produced more than half of our electricity over the previous quarter, and carbon emissions have been cut by 50% over the last five years.

Electric Insights creates not only a regular analysis of how Britain generates its electricity but also provides insight into the raw data and brings to life the stories hidden within it. Dr Staffell is producing the report in conjunction with Professor Tim Green, Director of Energy Futures Lab; Dr Rob Gross, Director of the Imperial Centre for Energy Policy and Technology; and Professor Richard Green of Imperial College Business School. The project was commissioned by Drax Group, owners of the largest biomass power station in Europe, and was facilitated by Imperial Consultants.

“I was intrigued when I was first approached by Drax with the idea of producing a free, transparent tool for understanding our electricity system” says Dr Staffell, “It very much plays to both my strengths and Imperial’s. With our data analytic skills and insights from across the spectrum of engineering, economics and policy, we can add real value to what can be complex and impenetrable data.”

Electric Insights consists of a live website that shows real-time information on Britain’s power system, with historic data spanning back over 7 years. This is backed up by reports which will be published each quarter and go deeper into the trends and events surrounding demand, power generation, wholesale energy prices, network issues and carbon emissions. Most importantly, the reports are independently written and edited and use publicly available data throughout, and the team will make their data available to others.

“This report shows Britain’s energy system is changing dramatically and we are seeing real benefits,” says Andy Koss, Drax Power CEO, “Cleaner energy has reached a record high, and carbon emissions from electricity hit a record low. We can also see the crucial role that policy levers like the Carbon Price Floor play."

The first report was published on 14 November and is available from the Electric Insights website. A new report will be released every three months with all previous reports and data available at all times from the website.

Imperial researchers find half of Britain's electricity is now low carbon
More than 50% of Britain’s electricity now low carbon according to ground-breaking new report - DRAX

Imperial researchers find carbon emissions from the power sector at 60 year low.

Prof Green has an interesting profile, as this piece from 2011 shows:
New professor Richard Green brings a business focus to environmentally friendly technologies
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