Renewable Electricity Generation Technologies

The RSC has submitted a response to the Innovation, Universities and Skills Select Committee consultation on renewable electricity generation.

• Solar power has the potential to provide a significant proportion of the UK energy needs, but drawbacks have to be addressed. The chemical sciences will be crucial in reducing the cost and increasing the efficiency of solar technology through improvements to current design and manufacture. 
• Biofuels have great potential for reducing carbon emissions but it is vital that energy used in their production is minimised or derived from renewable resources. Bioethanol from lignocellulosic biomass (such as wheat straw) could improve the economics and reduce land use for biofuels in the medium term. However significant research and development challenges remain for chemists, biochemists and engineers. 
• Technical barriers have to be overcome throughout the supply chain of the hydrogen economy including carbon capture and storage and the development of materials that allow save storage and distribution of hydrogen. 
• With wider use of renewables, the need for energy storage will increase significantly. Research into batteries is very important, especially into cheaper and safer electrode and electrolyte materials with better performance. 
• It is important that there are sufficiently trained and committed scientists and engineers to carry out the research, development, demonstration and deployment of renewable energy-generating technologies. 
• Two alternative technologies for future energy generation could be artificial photosynthesis and blue energy (salinity-gradient energy). This requires a long-term research and development effort beginning now before a commercial process can be envisaged. The technology for blue energy needs to be produced much more cheaply for it to be competitive with existing energy sources.