A bright future
1
A Bright Future "T 'm very encouraged to see the cur- l rent level of interest in renewables and hope that the firm policy direc- fives that are increasingly coming from Government will translate into funding and local action," says Dr Mary Archer, current president of the UK section of ISES. She explained to Nina Morgan how she believes that growing public awareness combined with government environmental targets will help promote the use and development of renewable energy sources in the UIC Light years By her own account, Mary Archer first 'saw the light' in 1972. That was when - follow- ing a first class honours degree in Chemistry from St Anne's College, Oxford, a PhD in Physical Chemistry at Imperial College, London and a junior research fellowship at St Hilda's College, Oxford - she went to work as a Post-doctoral Research Fellow with Dr George Porter, then director of the Royal Institution (ILl). Porter's interest in photochemistry combined well with her own background in electrochemistry, and the collaboration resulted in work on light re-chargeable electrochemical batteries. It was, she recalls, "a good time to be in this sort of research because the first oil price hike in 1973 very much awakened interest in renewable energy. Investigations of photochemical and photoelectrochemical ways of converting solar to electric power or fuel, once considered rather a niche activity, became very fashionable for a time." In 1973 she helped to found the UK Section of the the International Solar Energy Society (ISES) and served as its first Hon. Dr Mary Archer Following a successful research and teaching career in chemistry, where she specialised in electro- and pho- tochemistry, Mary Archer decided to give up full time teaching in order to widen the scope of her activities. She now serves on a number of advisory committees concerned with energy use and pol- icy and is the current president of both the National Energy Foundation and the UK section of ISES. Secretary until 1976. Although she has since gone on to do a many different things -- including a ten year stint of full time teach- ing in the chemistry department at Cambridge University - her interest in solar energy has never waned. Over the years she has served as a member of a number of gov- ernment advisory panels concerning renew- able energy and since 1999 has been serving as President of the UK section of ISES. There is a will... Renewables, she believes, can look forward to a bright future in the UK - partly due to a growing public awareness of environmental issues, and partly thanks to the Government's environmental targets. These include its commitment to meeting the CO 2 reduction targets agreed in Kyoto, as well as its goal of ensuring that 10% of electricity in the UK should come from renewable sources by 2010 - an ambitious aim bearing in mind that currently just 2.99% of UK energy is generated from renewables. "The decom- missioning of our nuclear power stations will put a lot of pressure on delivering the UK's CO 2 reduction target," she notes, "so I think the political will to promote renewable sources will need to be strong. "The recently issued government consultation paper on the proposed Renewable Energy Obligation, which would require electricity supply compa- nies to source an increasing percentage of their electricity from renewable sources, will she believes, go some way towards boosting the use of renewables in the UK. "The Renewable Energy Obligation will be helpful because it means that companies can shop around for wind-sourced electricity or other renewable sources in order to meet their green obliga- tion," she comments. "In general we're not short of generating capacity in the UK - so there has to be an incentive to change to renewables." ...But is there a way? However, she acknowledges, as it stands, power companies will not find it easy to meet their renew- able energy obligation targets without quite a lot of new instal- lation. "Pretty well all the renew- able electricity producing resources that exist are already in use and feeding the national grid," she notes. The additional sources of renewable ener- gy, she believes, seem likely to come from off- shore wind and biomass fuelled power sta- tions. Because both are, essentially, mature technologies, the difficulties lie not so much in improving the technology, but in encour- aging the growth of a political and economic climate that encourages their greater use. "Although the situation is changing, espe- cially with regard to wind power, without some kind of incentive, the costs of most renewables are currently still not inherently competitive, particularly with gas-fired power stations", she points out. There are also political problems to overcome. "Locally these technologies may face plan- ning or other forms of opposition," she explains. "People don't like the unfamiliar. And there are additional difficulties to over- come with regard to the new electricity trading arrangements, or NETA. These will make it difficult for suppliers with fluctuat- ing outputs - like wind generators - to sell into the NETA because you have to commit to supplying a given amount of power in advance. But producers are already looking for ways to get around this problem. One solution might be to club together into cooperatives to guarantee their output." Stimulating solar But a major problem still to be solved is how to fit solar energy into the UK renew- ables equation and how to stimulate the development of solar technologies. "There are quite large aspects of solar that aren't addressed in the Renewable Energy Obligation," she points out. "It is much eas- ier for the government to stimulate renewables that generate electricity. But a better way to make use of solar energy is to look at different ways of using it to fulfil specific needs for ener- gy, rather than as another means of supplying a mains electricity grid. For example passive solar - in the form of energy-efficient housing with appropriately oriented windows - is a very cost effective technology. But it doesn't generate electricity. In the developing world photovoltaic technology (PV) offers power where there was no power. And in the devel- oped world, it offers a smarter way to gener- ate certain amounts of power to reduce dependence on conventional fuels. As the use of PV increases, we could soon be achieving that virtuous cycle where the more the tech- nology goes in, the cheaper it becomes." January/February 2001 RE:: ~' www.re-focus.net
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Transcript of A bright future
A Bright Future " T 'm very encouraged to see the cur-
l
rent level of interest in renewables
and hope that the firm policy direc-
fives that are increasingly coming from
Government will translate into funding and
local action," says Dr Mary Archer, current
president of the UK section of ISES. She
explained to Nina Morgan how she believes
that growing public awareness combined
with government environmental targets
will help promote the use and development
of renewable energy sources in the UIC
Light years By her own account, Mary Archer first 'saw
the light' in 1972. That was when - follow-
ing a first class honours degree in Chemistry
from St Anne's College, Oxford, a PhD in
Physical Chemistry at Imperial College,
London and a junior research fellowship at
St Hilda's College, Oxford - she went to
work as a Post-doctoral Research Fellow
with Dr George Porter, then director of the
Royal Institution (ILl). Porter's interest in
photochemistry combined well with her
own background in electrochemistry, and
the collaboration resulted in work on light
re-chargeable electrochemical batteries.
It was, she recalls, "a good time to be in
this sort of research because the first oil
price hike in 1973 very much awakened
interest in renewable energy. Investigations
of photochemical and photoelectrochemical
ways of converting solar to electric power or
fuel, once considered rather a niche activity,
became very fashionable for a time."
In 1973 she helped to found the UK
Section of the the International Solar Energy
Society (ISES) and served as its first Hon.
Dr Mary Archer Following a successful research and teaching career in chemistry, where she specialised in electro- and pho- tochemistry, Mary Archer decided to give up full time teaching in
order to widen the scope of her activities. She now serves on a number of advisory committees
concerned with energy use and pol- icy and is the current president of both the National Energy
Foundation and the UK section of ISES.
Secretary until 1976. Although she has since gone on to do a many different things - - including a ten year stint of full time teach-
ing in the chemistry department at Cambridge University - her interest in solar energy has never waned. Over the years she has served as a member of a number of gov- ernment advisory panels concerning renew- able energy and since 1999 has been serving as President of the UK section of ISES.
There is a will.. . Renewables, she believes, can look forward to a bright future in the UK - partly due to a growing public awareness of environmental issues, and partly thanks to the Government's environmental targets. These include its commitment to meeting the CO 2 reduction targets agreed in Kyoto, as well as its goal of ensuring that 10% of electricity in the UK should come from renewable sources by 2010 - an ambitious aim bearing in mind that currently just 2.99% of UK energy is generated from renewables. "The decom- missioning of our nuclear power stations will put a lot of pressure on delivering the UK's CO 2 reduction target," she notes, "so I think the political will to promote renewable sources will need to be strong. "The recently issued government consultation paper on the proposed Renewable Energy Obligation, which would require electricity supply compa- nies to source an increasing percentage of their electricity from renewable sources, will she believes, go some way towards boosting the use of renewables in the UK. "The Renewable Energy Obligation will be helpful because it means that companies can shop around for wind-sourced electricity or other renewable sources in order to meet their green obliga- tion," she comments. "In general we're not short of generating capacity in the UK - so
there has to be an incentive to change to renewables."
...But is there a way? However, she acknowledges, as it stands, power companies will not find it easy to meet their renew- able energy obligation targets without quite a lot of new instal- lation. "Pretty well all the renew- able electricity producing resources that exist are already in use and feeding the national
grid," she notes.
The additional sources of renewable ener- gy, she believes, seem likely to come from off-
shore wind and biomass fuelled power sta- tions. Because both are, essentially, mature technologies, the difficulties lie not so much in improving the technology, but in encour-
aging the growth of a political and economic climate that encourages their greater use.
"Although the situation is changing, espe-
cially with regard to wind power, without some kind of incentive, the costs of most renewables are currently still not inherently
competitive, particularly with gas-fired power stations", she points out. There are also political problems to overcome.
"Locally these technologies may face plan- ning or other forms of opposition," she explains. "People don't like the unfamiliar.
And there are additional difficulties to over- come with regard to the new electricity trading arrangements, or NETA. These will make it difficult for suppliers with fluctuat-
ing outputs - like wind generators - to sell into the NETA because you have to commit to supplying a given amount of power in
advance. But producers are already looking for ways to get around this problem. One
solution might be to club together into cooperatives to guarantee their output." Stimulating solar But a major problem still to be solved is
how to fit solar energy into the UK renew-
ables equation and how to stimulate the development of solar technologies. "There are quite large aspects of solar that aren't
addressed in the Renewable Energy Obligation," she points out. "It is much eas- ier for the government to stimulate renewables that generate electricity. But a better way to make use of solar energy is to look at different
ways of using it to fulfil specific needs for ener- gy, rather than as another means of supplying
a mains electricity grid. For example passive solar - in the form of energy-efficient housing
with appropriately oriented windows - is a very cost effective technology. But it doesn't generate electricity. In the developing world photovoltaic technology (PV) offers power
where there was no power. And in the devel- oped world, it offers a smarter way to gener- ate certain amounts of power to reduce
dependence on conventional fuels. As the use of PV increases, we could soon be achieving that virtuous cycle where the more the tech- nology goes in, the cheaper it becomes."
January/February 2001 R E : : ~' www.re-focus.net
