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‘Shifting to a low carbon economy: a piece of cake? Jean-Marc Jancovici’s seminar is not to be missed
By ucqbfcs, on 22 June 2015
Jean-Marc Jancovici, one of the most famous energy experts in France, will be giving a seminar on June 29th, on the historical importance of energy! Industrial revolutions, post-war boom, recessions or crisis: do not miss the opportunity to learn about the central role of energy in the economies of our modern societies! Read the rest of this entry »
The power of reducing energy consumption is in our hands
By Catalina Spataru, on 19 June 2015
Setting a thermostat to cool in the summer.
According to the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life, there are 5.8 billion religiously affiliated adults and children around the globe, which represents 84% of the 2010 world population of 6.9 billion. From this 32% of the world’s population represent Christians. The demographic study was based on an analysis of more than 2,500 census, surveys and population registers.
Also, Pew Research Center has published results on % who believe there is solid evidence that Earth is getting warmer Read the rest of this entry »
Sunny thoughts from ECEEE’s Summer Study on Energy Efficiently
By Paula Morgenstern, on 10 June 2015
View from the conference site
The 12th ECEEE (European Council for an Energy Efficient Economy) Summer Study on Energy Efficiency took place from the 1-6th of June in the south of France. Three colleagues from UCL-Energy Institute were fortunate enough to be part of this week of presentations, discussions and workshops around energy efficiency. They left with smiles and many new ideas thanks to an event bringing together experts from many different sectors and backgrounds. Everyone’s shared ambition to make energy efficiency a reality (as reflected in the conference slogan “First Fuel Now”) made networking easy and differences in worldviews a conversation starter rather than an obstacle. Okay, maybe the generous supply of French wine the summer study is famous for also contributed here.
Find out here which new thoughts Gesche Huebner, Mike Fell and Paula Morgenstern have brought back to London from ECEEE:
The Queen’s Speech: what is next for onshore wind farm subsidies?
By Andrew ZP Smith, on 8 June 2015
Following on from a manifesto commitment to “halt the spread of onshore wind farms”, the incoming Conservative Government has proposed in the Queen’s Speech that new subsidies would not be available to future onshore windfarms. This despite overwhelming public support for onshore wind: the DECC attitude-tracking survey of April 2015 found that just 12% of the public opposed the use of onshore wind, while 64% supported it. Read the rest of this entry »
Fact checking Elon Musk’s Blue Square: How much solar to power the US?
By Andrew ZP Smith, on 21 May 2015
How much power do solar photovoltaic systems produce per unit of land area? And does it matter: is it a constraint in the real world?
At Elon Musk’s glitzy launch of the Tesla PowerWall and PowerPack batteries, the Tesla CEO showed a map of the US, with a small square in the North-West corner of Texas marked in blue, and said that solar panels over that surface area would be enough to enable US electricity to go carbon-free.
Here’s a quick fact-check on that claim. Read the rest of this entry »
The value and importance of POE and BPE – a case study
By Sofie L J Pelsmakers, on 23 April 2015
Carrie Behar presenting the POE/BPE results
For Green Sky Thinking 2015, ECD architects presented the initial findings of a detailed Post Occupancy Evaluation (POE) and Building Performance Evaluation (BPE) of their own offices. The POE was led by Carrie Behar, a doctoral researcher at the Bartlett, UCL Energy Institute, where she also runs the POE module for MSc students. Read the rest of this entry »
Financing Home Energy Efficiency: Lessons from the Green Deal and Needs for the Future
By ucqbldv, on 14 April 2015
On the 24th of March 2015, Mark Bayley, the Chief Executive and Petter Allison, the Commercial Director of the Green Deal Finance Company came to visit the UCL Energy Institute to present their inside knowledge on the start-up phase and the current development of the Green Deal. Read the rest of this entry »
UCL Energy Institute participates in Mexico’s President round table on the opportunities of building a sustainable energy economy in the UK and Mexico
By ucftbso, on 13 April 2015
James Smith, Chairman of the Carbon Trust and ex-Chair of Shell UK moderated the discussion and summarised the outcome to the President of Mexico and UK government representatives.
Recently I took part in a high level round table on the opportunities of building a sustainable energy economy in the UK and in Mexico. The event was held on the occasion of the State Visit of the President of Mexico to the United Kingdom. This was a select roundtable discussion building on a dialogue initiated in Campeche, Mexico during HRH The Prince of Wales’s visit in November 2014. The roundtable was held in conjunction with the Department of Energy and Climate Change and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office; its aim was to debate areas of future co-operation through knowledge and technology transfer that will help each nation successfully meet their mutually ambitious carbon reduction targets, whilst addressing the challenges posed by the transition to a low carbon energy system.
More than a third of people would let their energy supplier turn off their heating
By Michael J Fell, on 23 March 2015
A sinister engineer in orange overalls and dark glasses looms from behind your fridge, hands raised, as if to strike… This is the scenario painted in the Daily Mail in a 2013 article on ‘direct load control’, or the possibility that third parties (‘outside forces’) such as energy suppliers could turn appliances in people’s home off and on to help keep the UK’s electricity system in balance.
Careers in Energy 2015
By ucqbldv, on 23 February 2015
UCL’s career events are really something you should not miss: A large number of UCL students from the related studies visited the last event “Careers in Energy 2015” in the white pavilion in the main quad.
Here, young representatives from larger-sized companies as well as from fresh startups spoke about their personal experiences of entering the job market in the energy sector after they had completed their own education.
In that way, it made it very easy for students to relate to and exchange ideas in a more casual way. Even though the companies did not offer vacancies to the students directly, there was plenty of room to discuss possible internships or dissertation topics, which may be beneficial at a later stage.
The most important message though, came from one of the speakers: “Sustainability is like wrestling with a gorilla, you don’t give up when you are tired, you give up when the gorilla is tired!” This short message made it clear that there are plenty of opportunities out there. If one feels neglected, it is important to stand up again. As the issues about energy and climate change are likely to worsen with every minute, we now really need people to work together to tackle those issues.
For the next event, it would be great to hear a bit more about the career opportunities for students from overseas, as not all companies are willing to hire students who require a visa. It is important that also these students benefit from UCL Careers’ Events.
And finally, a brief hint from some students: Always bring your business cards, that can sometimes do wonders!
Thanks to the great presentations and ideas we got from Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), Green Tomato Energy, Rambøll, E4Tech, Element Energy, Zero Carbon Hub, Sustainable Engineering Collective and National Grid.
Post by
Lucas van Laack
MSc Environmental Design and Engineering
Student Representative Bartlett Faculty of the Built Environment
UCL Institute for Environmental Design and Engineering (IEDE)