Yesterday saw the launch of the Materials for Energy Working Group Strategic Research Agenda at Tate Britain. There were about 150 people there and strong support from just about every conceivable stakeholder. Wyn kicked off the meeting by introducing Sir Brian Bender, the Permanent Secretary of BERR, who was followed in turn by David Clark, the soon-to-be CEO of the Energy Technologies Institute, Iain Gray, the only-just CEO of the Technology Strategy Board, John Wand, the Director of the Materials Programme at the EPSRC and Nick Otter of Alstom Power. What was remarkable about the 6 talks was what they had in common – a recognition that “materials” had an important role to play in increasing the supply of clean and secure energy for the UK, an acknowledgement that there was not a single answer to the challenge (as someone has already observed, we don’t need a silver bullet, we need silver buckshot!) and real appreciation for the activities of the Working Group.

After a coffee break, we got down to the meat of the event. Derek led off with a introduction to and overview of the Strategic Research Agenda, and then the leaders of the 4 constituent, more technical, reports summarised the contribution made to the overall picture by their sub-groups. It was a rich and persuasive mix of analysis and ideas, but again, the work of the last 18 months paid off in terms of coherence and consistency. From what we estimate to be the result of the equivalent of about £350k worth of high quality consultancy, the need for greater speed to implement and better control of costs through the implementation cycle, the requirement for materials with higher performance in harsher environments, and longer implementation lifetimes brought about by better reliability and improved through-life management came across in all the areas described. All the presentations – and the vital documents themselves – can be found here. As my Californian colleagues used to say – Enjoy!

David

p.s. I apologise for the pun in the title, and do realise that energy and power are different!!!