The 2021 UK Net Zero Harwell EnergyTec conference was streamed live from the very first time from the Harwell Campus Management YouTube channel on Thursday 21st January 2021.
The annual conference brings together industry, government bodies and academia to explore the greatest challenge of our age – building a greener world. This year the focus was on meeting the challenge from the Climate Change Committee to bring forward by 15 years the UK’s ambition for an 80% reduction in carbon emissions, achieving Net Zero by 2050.
Industry leaders came together for a series of presentations and a stimulating panel session to discuss and share ideas on some of the latest innovative technologies, applications and engineering initiatives that are meeting the challenges presented by Net Zero.
The four key speakers explored the Harwell Net Zero Living Laboratory where novel energy systems can be tested in a real-world environment, Dr Barbara Ghinelli, UKRI-STFC said “I would like to highlight the development of a Net Zero Living Laboratory at Harwell, which is at the heart of both the Living Oxford initiative and the Oxford Cambridge Arc strategy“.
How to expedite net zero technologies in the UK with engineering, insight into the Brunel Challenge, the role that innovation will play in achieving Net Zero and the challenges of taking aviation to Net Zero, Dr James Barth, Reaction Engines said, “Ammonia offers you a route to zero carbon air travel“.
Watch all the speaker presentations here:
View the panel discussion focussing on ‘Accelerating the Journey through Engineering between Concept and Commercialisation to Grow the UK’s Net Zero Energy Capabilities‘. This panel discussion was chaired by Prof. Joe Howe, Chester University and brought academia, industry and national research facilities to look at some of the challenges ahead.
Panellists and speakers included:
- Professor Paul Monks, Chief Scientific Advisor, BEIS
- Dr Barbara Ghinelli, Director, Harwell Campus Business Development and Clusters, UKRI-STFC
- Martin Aston, Forvanda (previously Airbus)
- Dr James Barth, Head of Aero-Thermal Engineering, Reaction Engines
- Eric Brown, CTO, Energy Systems Catapult
- Professor Joe Howe, Chester University (Panel Chair)
- Alice Porter, Deputy Commercialisation Director, UKRI
- Ian Ellerington, Head of Technology Transfer, Faraday Institution
- Elodie Viau, Head of ESCAT and Director of Telecommunication and Integrated Applications, European Space Agency
- Professor Paul Beasley, Siemens
- Professor Bill David, UKRI-STFC, Oxford University
- Dr Jack Nicholas, CEO, Qdot
If you would like to learn more about the EnergyTec Cluster at Harwell, please click here.