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Sir Chris Llewellyn Smith: We need hydrogen energy storage to reach net zero

If you think of the UK’s renewable energy market as a jigsaw puzzle, electricity storage is the missing piece. While December 2023 saw a 6.8% increase in renewable energy generation (30.1 TWh in Q3), thanks to higher wind speeds and increased onshore and offshore capacity, the reality is that unless we find a way to store that energy, our renewable supply will remain as unpredictable as the weather. And that means a continued reliance on fossil fuels, regardless of how much money is thrown at hydrogen production, wind farms and solar panels.

For Sir Chris Llewellyn Smith, a former director-general of CERN (the Large Hadron Collider accelerator was approved during his tenure), Emeritus Professor of Physics at the University of Oxford and a Royal Society fellow, this has become something of a mission. In September 2023, he co-authored a Royal Society report on large-scale electricity storage that highlighted the need to support large-scale wind and solar power generation with large-scale hydrogen storage, and to start building that storage now.

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BI Foresight

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Why self-regulation and government intervention are at a crossroads

For some politicians and business leaders, regulation is a dirty word. The arguments generally go that regulation is bad for economies as it stifles innovation and growth. Too much red tape and bureaucracy, too much government intervention. Triumphalist, propaganda-like statements from the White House in the US last October, and a bizarre Economic Report of the President 2020 have done little to clarify the argument, either for or against. Claims that the Trump administration’s repeal of the net neutrality rules will increase real incomes by more than $50 billion per year and consumer welfare by almost $40 billion per year seem ridiculous. There is no evidence that de-regulation in the US has or will improve broadband prices or services, either now or in the future.

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IDG Connect

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