Knowledge Transfer Network Workshop on National Ambitions for Power Generation in the UK
Conference Centre, 1 Victoria Street, London | 15th March 2011
Most people would agree that the recent international climate change summits have been disappointing, however the UK has continued to commit to stringent cuts in CO2 emissions in the power generation sector to meet tough targets for 2050. At the same time the UK needs security of supply at all times when future demand is expected to see significant growth as a result of the further switch to electricity in transport and in the home. This is resulting in a series of issues that the UK’s future power generation network has to be able to address, such as:
- Power generation with near-zero emissions in a reliable and cost effective way
- Avoidance of an over-dependency on any one fuel
- Meeting the renewable targets and coping with the intermittency of renewables
- Management of a system of: centralised and distributed generation; intermittent and base-load-only plant; new technologies, some of which are still undergoing development
These issues are the same as those considered in the first annual workshop of the Energy Generation and Supply Knowledge Transfer Network (EG&S KTN) and they are even more pressing now than a year ago. The mission of the EG&S KTN is to create an integrated and dynamic network of business, technology, academic and policy stakeholders delivering strategic and effective knowledge exchange to advance the UK energy generation and supply sector. Consequently, the future of power generation in the UK and in particular the topics raised above, are a core issue for the EG&S KTN. The first annual workshop focused on 2020-2030; this workshop continues with this focus but it also looks further out to 2050 and what has to be done by then.
As part of its remit, the EG&S KTN is organising this workshop with the following aims:
- To discuss the planning scenarios for UK power generation out to 2050
- To provide an update on what the UK must do to meet its climate change and security of supply targets for power generation, post 2020
- To hear from major stakeholders on their strategy for deployment of power generation technologies post 2020 and to discuss what else the UK should be doing to ensure it can meet its targets out to 2050
- To discuss the technology-related issues that need to be addressed to ensure the UK meets its targets post 2030 out to 2050
The workshop will consist of invited presentations covering the above aims. This will be followed by a session in which all delegates will be invited to participate to consider whether the UK really has a plan for achieving the 2050 targets and whether it can be delivered. The output from the workshop will be fed into the Government and other major stakeholders to help ensure success in the UK meeting its targets.
To view the agenda and presentations click here
This is the second of two 1-day workshops at the 1 Victoria Street Conference Centre. The first workshop, on the day before - 14 March, is organised by the Advanced Power Generation Technology Forum and focuses on carbon capture and storage (CCS) for fossil fuels power generation. It provides an update on the UK’s strategy and progress and then considers what else needs to be done to ensure CCS is implemented in time and to position the UK so that it has a leadership role on CCS technology in the future.