Head of Institute starts new ‘Energy Masterclass’ lecture series as part of the ‘Energy Technology’ course for Cambridge chemical engineering students
On Friday 11th October Professor Andy Woods gave the first lecture of his new Energy Masterclass lecture series for students taking the part IIB Energy Technology course in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology.
In this introductory lecture, Andy began with a series of graphs displaying the world’s current energy mix and the globally distributed patterns of supply and usage. Visually illustrating the enormity of the challenge of reaching ‘Net Zero’ by 2050, Andy went on to establish the key considerations and barriers surrounding not only scaling up renewable energy production, but, crucially, innovating new effective means of transportation and storage.
The students could begin to grapple with the complexity of such considerations, through brief introductions to questions surrounding topics including: Hydrogen production and its potential role in transport and storage; the extent of the intermittency of energy supply from wind and solar power; infrastructural challenges surrounding carbon capture and storage; and sourcing metals to upscale renewable energy infrastructure, including preliminary discussion of the environmental impact of deep sea mining.
We are excited for these students to learn from Andy’s expertise throughout the series, as they become inspired to question and investigate the extensive and vitally important challenges surrounding the energy transition.