OU Research Channel on Youtube

OU Research Articles on The Conversation

December 2021

Videos featuring Professor William Nuttall contribute to website for Barclays Eagle Labs – Energy Tech (December 2021), available at: https://labs.uk.barclays/energytech

2021-2025

Independent Advisory Board member for UKRI Interdisciplinary Circular Economy Centre for Mineral-based Construction Materials- Dr. Alice Moncaster is the Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Energy theme representative, for a 4 year centre led by UCL with Leeds, Loughborough, Lancaster, Sheffield, Imperial and BGS.

May 2021

31/05/2021
Life Levels project for the Green Building Councils of Ireland, Italy, and Croatia - Dr. Alice Moncaster led a small consultancy group through Cambridge Architectural Research as an Associate; to produce generic values for the environmental impacts of ten key construction materials, market information for the three countries on their domestic production and imports, and advice on setting up a national database for construction materials, as part of an EU-funded project.  The report is currently under a period of consultation and at https://www.igbc.ie/public-consultation-national-carbon-data/ and will be the basis for the next steps in each country towards national requirements for embodied impact calculations for all buildings.


24/05/2021
Sustainable energy is the key agenda for all, and to save the generations globally... some early indications of the top 10 is made up exclusively of developed countries, the UK and France are the only major global economies to feature. The highest-placed non-advanced economy is Latvia (12), which is classed as ‘Emerging and Developing Europe’.
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/04/these-countries-are-leading-the-transition-to-sustainable-energy/

March 2021

28/03/2021
US says it will cut the cost of solar by 60% in ten years
https://electrek.co/2021/03/26/us-cut-cost-solar-by-60-percent-decade/


18/03/2021
This will fund low-carbon heating systems, such as heat pumps, and energy efficiency measures like insulation and LED lighting. Business and Energy Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said: "We're taking steps to be the first major economy to have its own low-carbon industrial sector. While reaching our climate targets will require extensive change across our economy
https://www-bbc-co-uk.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/business-56426928


12/03/2021
Data from two Swiss energy suppliers with 234,000 households and 9,000 businesses in urban and rural areas restructured their products to offer a choice between conventional power, renewable power and “renewable plus”. Consumers were assigned the renewable package unless they opted out, a behavioural mechanism known to have success
https://eandt.theiet.org/content/articles/2021/03/default-green-energy-tariffs-could-save-millions-of-tonnes-in-co2-emissions


05/03/2021
The influential Public Accounts Committee (PAC) says ministers have "no plan" to meet climate change targets, two years after setting them in law.
https://www-bbc-co-uk.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/uk-politics-56285239

January 2021

28/01/2021
Electricity generation from renewables overtook fossil fuels in the UK for the first time in 2020, a new report from think tanks Ember and Agora Energiewende has found.
https://eandt.theiet.org/content/articles/2021/01/renewables-eclipsed-fossil-fuels-in-the-uk-in-2020


26/01/2021
Carbon emissions fell across all sectors in 2020 except for one – SUVs
https://www.iea.org/commentaries/carbon-emissions-fell-across-all-sectors-in-2020-except-for-one-suvs?

November 2020

Centre for Science and Policy, Cambridge University - Dr. Alice Moncaster was an invited podcast guest on Science, Policy and a green recovery: our built environment.
https://open.spotify.com/episode/2RudPBtT62R4jU33tNBqa1

September 2020

Very interesting stats over decades
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dj_-ISVoto4

August 2020

New book edited by Prof. William Nuttall

Energy and Mobility in Smart Cities, brings together a collection of expert perspectives focusing on key themes underlying successful Smart City developments. With a particular emphasis on developments relating to energy and mobility, the book provides a far-reaching analysis of key drivers of innovation and potential opportunities and challenges associated with the rise of digital infrastructure and smart cities technology.

2020 ICE publishing award
Madhu Madhavi’s work on Coal “Coal in the twenty-first century: a climate of change and uncertainty” won the 2020 ICE publishing award:
ttps://www.icevirtuallibrary.com/page/authors/awards-2020


HEIF Hydrogen Economy project, June 2020
Higher Education innovation fund proposal on Hydrogen as a clean energy vector as been approved. The intent of this funded project is to explore the question of where in the world material scale hydrogen production will first emerge, and why. Hydrogen will play a key role in the future economy for addressing sectors that are difficult to de-carbonise by electrification, while also serving as a transport and storage medium for renewable energy.


The Hidden Power of Systems Thinking: Governance in a Climate Emergency
The Hidden Power of Systems Thinking: Governance in a Climate Emergency is a persuasive, lively book that shows how systems thinking can be harnessed to effect profound, complex change. Ison and Straw show how and why failure in governance is at the heart of the collective incapacity to tackle the climate and biodiversity emergencies. They go beyond analysis of the problem and demonstrate how incorporating systems thinking into governance at every level would enable us to break free of historical shackles. They propose 26 principles for systemic governance.

17^th August 2019

New book from Prof. William Nuttall and Dr. Adetokunboh Bakenne

Professor William Nuttall is delighted to see that Springer has announced the publication of his upcoming book on hydrogen energy: Fossil Fuel Hydrogen, co-authored with Dr Adetokunboh Bakenne. It focuses on hydrogen from fossil fuels arguing that such approaches may have a role to play in the large-scale supply of a key low-carbon fuel for the future.

3^rd September 2018

OU Part of DTA3 Success

For further information, click here.

November 2015

Power to the People
Three-part OU/BBC series airs on BBC FOUR TV starting at 9pm on 17th November 2015.
The series looks at SSE, one of the Big Six UK electricity companies as the sector faces challenges and changes.

July 19^th - 23^rd 2015

The 33rd International Conference of the System Dynamics Society 2015
OU Energy was represented at this conference held in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA

June 17^th - 19^th 2015

International Conference on Technology Policy and Innovation
Papers presented at ICTPI15 to be published in the following publications:
ICTPI-linked Scientific Journal – Technological Forecasting and Social Change (Elsevier)
Special Themed Journal Issue – Energy (ICE Proceedings)
and a conference book

March 31^st - April 2^nd 2015

Universities Nuclear Technology Forum sponsored in part by The Nuclear Institute
More information can be found here

March 9^th 2015

SET for BRITAIN Engineering 2015
OU Energy will be represented with a poster at the House of Commons in the Engineering Sciences Session from 6.15pm – 9.00pm in the Attlee Suite, Portcullis House

February 2015

Professor William Nuttall have been guest editor of a special themed issue of
the journal ICE Energy on the topic of Natural Gas
                            

October 20^th 2014

Watt’s Energy Academy Event
Time: 12:30pm - 5:00pm
Venue: Heriot-Watt University

October 10^th 2014

The Challenge Fund, The Phase 1 application form, and guidance notes, is available here
E-mail: challenge@localenergyscotland.org
Telephone: 0131 555 7900

October 7^th 2014

Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Innovation
Energy Policy uncertainty – Dr Nick Eyre

August 28^th 2014

There is an opening for a Ph.D position in cooperation between the European Commission,
Joint Research Center and Politecnico di Torino.
Please See Links for More Information:
http://ses.jrc.ec.europa.eu/jobs
http://dottorato.polito.it/bandi_en.html
http://dottorato.polito.it/pdf/Bando%20di%20Concorso%2030%20ciclo%20Inglese.pdf

July 31^st 2014

ICO-CDT application deadline More Information
Use the following link to apply: http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/nuclearcdt/apply

5th December 2013

Time: 12:30pm (Lunch available from 12pm)
Venue: Meeting Room 1, Ground Floor, JLB (Please note change of Venue for the seminar)
Speaker: Prof Gerd Kortuem – Computing & Communications
Title: MK:Smart: A Journey in Sub(Urban) Computing

Abstract:
Milton Keynes was founded with a utopian vision and has always exhibited a future-oriented spirit. In recent years Milton Keynes Council has been at the forefront in the struggle to reduce carbon emissions through a combination of technology innovation, community engagement and business collaboration. In the future Milton Keynes’ population is expected to expand from 252,400 in 2012 to over 300,000 in 2026. This growth will put stress on MK’s energy, water and transport infrastructure and might exacerbate social tensions.

MK:Smart is a new collaborative research and development project that aims to develop and deploy urban computing technologies in Milton Keynes. The project covers a wide range of research, development and education activities, and explores the role of digital technologies in future “smart” cities:

• Urban Analytics: how can data-driven analyses of resource consumption, human behavior, mobility patterns, economic activity, and urban perception inform the city design process?
• Citizen Innovation: how can social collaboration tools help local communities to identify social problems and develop solutions in areas such as crime, transportation, health, education, food, energy, water, and environmental protection?
• Mobility Networks: how can digital technologies and real-time data, in combination with innovative urban transportation system (including electric vehicles, on-demand bus systems and ride-sharing solutions), alleviate traffic problems, reduce carbon emissions and provide affordable mobility for all?
• Water and Energy Networks: how can new technologies for smart grids and intelligent metering enable urban water and energy networks that dynamically respond to human mobility and behavior patterns and integrate renewable energy sources?
• Business Innovation: what are the businesses opportunities in future smart-city ecosystems and how can we support technology start-ups to exploit these opportunities?

This talk will provide an overview of the MK:Smart project. It will describe select initiatives in energy, citizen innovation and education, and discuss the role of the Computing and Communications department in delivering this project.

November 19^th 2013

OU Energy launched with an evening reception in the OU Berrill theatre.

July 12^th 2013

Energy Research Community of Interest kick-off meeting took place in the Systems Seminar Room.