Past events

30 Jan

Energy Seminar – Week 3 HT24: MSc in Energy Systems dissertation projects, understanding university building energy consumption & Green hydrogen in South Africa

Laurence Peinturier, DPhil candidate, Engineering Science, Colin Kinghorn, MSc Energy Systems alumnus

Summary: Limiting global warming to 1.5°C necessitates a significant reduction in energy demand and an increase in energy efficiency, particularly within the building sector; responsible for 26% of global energy-related emissions and 25% of UK emissions in 2022. Among UK buildings, higher education institutions (HEIs) rank second in energy intensity, due to their diverse array of activities, spaces, and age. To [...]

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Seminar | Week 3
23 Jan

Energy Seminar – Week 2 HT24: Finding the fuel poor and framing better policy

Dr Brenda Boardman, Emeritus Fellow, ECI, Dr Tina Fawcett, Senior Researcher, ECI

Summary: During winter 2022/23 residential energy prices were exceptionally high in the UK and Europe. The UK government responded by subsidising prices for all households, spending almost £50 billion, and similar decisions were made across Europe. Despite the huge expenditure of public money, many millions of households still suffered from inadequate access to energy. This talk presents analysis of the experience [...]

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Seminar | Week 2
17 Jan

COP 28: Over and Out?

Professor Isabel Oliver - Director General of Science and Research & Chief Scientific Officer at the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) Dr Rosie Rowe - Head of Healthy Place Shaping at Oxfordshire County Council Paul Skinner - Co-Chair and Company Secretary at Rose Hill and Iffley Low Carbon Alexis McGivern - Net Zero Standards Manager at Oxford Net Zero

Back in 2015, the Paris Agreement marked a significant step forward in global efforts to combat climate change. However, the recent UN Climate Change Conference, COP 28 in Dubai, has left us with more uncertainties than assurances about our ability to address the climate crisis through good governance. Fossil fuels continue to be widely used, prompting a need for urgent action [...]

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16 Jan

Energy Seminar Week 1 HT24: Using Data and AI to Deliver a Fully Sustainable Global Energy System

Lucy Yu, CEO at Centre for Net Zero

Summary: As more of our energy is generated from variable renewable sources and key sectors such as transport and heat electrify further, our future energy system will undergo fundamental transformation. The most important and yet least well understood changes concern the demand side. Established in 2021 by the global innovator Octopus Energy Group, Centre for Net Zero (CNZ) conducts independent, AI [...]

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Seminar | Week 1
05 Dec

‘Just’ Energy Infrastructure for the Climate Common Good’ FORUM

The University of Pau and the Pays de l’Adour, the TREE Research Centre (Energy and Environmental Transitions), the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS, France), the Maison Française d’Oxford and the Institute of European and Comparative Law (University of Oxford) are convening for the ‘Just’ Energy Infrastructure for the Climate Common Good: a Comparative International Analysis Forum. The Forum event [...]

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28 Nov

Energy Seminar – Week 8: What do we need to do to build onshore wind?

James Robottom

THIS IS AN IN PERSON AND ONLINE EVENT Summary: Onshore wind in the UK is complex. It is a mature technology with a current capacity of close to 15GW. That is enough to power over 9.5 million homes which last year generated 11% of the UK’s electricity needs. With the first commercial wind farm being built in England in 1991 – [...]

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Seminar | Week 8
21 Nov

Energy Seminar – Week 7: The roles of nuclear fission and fusion in the future UK energy system

Professor William Nuttall, CPhys FInstP FRSA

THIS IS AN IN PERSON AND ONLINE EVENT Summary: Fusion has somehow leapt from being a distant concern of horizon-scanning academics and national lab researchers to being a trendy new start-up technology. Fission advocates have a new plan that is factory built and hopefully cheaper than the vast 2-reactor power plant under construction near Bristol. Fusion research and development has seen [...]

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Seminar | Week 7