Physicists needed for Renewable Energy Strategy to work

 The Institute of Physics (IOP)’s Chief Executive has today, Thursday, July 16, written to editors in response to news of The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC)’s publication of the UK Renewable Energy Strategy, to say “in a nutshell, if you want to save the world, do physics!”.

The new Energy Strategy confirms the UK’s commitment to ensuring that 15 per cent of our renewable energy comes from renewable sources by 2020 and aims to make the UK a world class centre of energy expertise.

Dr Robert Kirby-Harris, Chief Executive of the IOP, has written, “While we applaud the well-coordinated approach indicated in the Energy white paper: Meeting the energy challenge, and indeed, DECC’s ambitious targets, urgent Government attention must be applied to ensure the UK has sufficient people equipped with the right skills to meet the huge challenges we face.

“The White Paper states that 1.2 million people could be working in green industries by 2015, many of whom will need a strong knowledge base in science to perform their roles. A significant research programme is needed to underpin these developing industries and to ensure we make the right choices. All this depends on the UK producing far more scientists and engineers than we have currently.

“Renewable energy sources like wind, solar and tide, and the ideas supporting carbon capture and storage, are all underpinned by physics and related disciplines and all, to be effective, need to be modelled and designed by physicists and engineers. Furthermore for nuclear power we are particularly dependant on nuclear physicists and engineers – where there is a huge shortage.

“We must ask now who is going to run the nuclear power plants, how are we going to ensure that investment in renewable energy sources or low-carbon technologies is effectively spent, and how can we ensure that the very best scientific research is available to us to mitigate and adapt to the effects of climate change which increasingly requires urgent action?

“The White Paper from DECC today is a tremendous step forward. We now need to ensure we have the skilled people and scientific research base which enable this strategy to be achieved.

“In a nutshell, if you want to save the world, do physics!”