Energy and Climate Seminar 4: Decarbonising Transport

Introduction

Vehicle electrification has the potential to offer huge benefits in terms of decarbonisation and will go a long way to helping the UK meet its greenhouse gas emissions targets. It is not without its challenges, however. Various aspects of this transition could have transformative effects for several sectors, from the automotive industry to the electricity sector.

All of this depends on a huge number of uncertainties. How will consumers choose to charge their vehicles? What kind of vehicles with what sort of ranges will they buy? How will they use them? How compatible will their energy requirements be with the availability of low carbon energy?

This talk will cover the work the Energy Technologies Institute has led to examine the implications for vehicle decarbonisation and what sort of systems and structures can be put in place to ensure these changes do not have a detrimental effect on either the utility of these vehicles or on the cost of travel. As well as underlying travel needs, this work has examined the long term technical potential for vehicle technologies, the practical capability of energy supply systems and the market and policy frameworks that could be utilised.

The hope is that the different sectors this affects can make use of the knowledge gained to map out a route to deliver effective vehicle decarbonisation.

Speaker: Liam Lidstone, ETI

Liam is the Strategy Manager for Light Vehicle Integration and for Energy Storage and Distribution at the ETI. He is responsible for defining the ETI’s technology strategy in these areas, a role he has previously held in the ETI’s Smart Systems and Heat, Buildings, Distributed Energy and Marine Renewable Energy programmes. Presently, Liam is seconded from the Energy Systems Catapult where he oversees Infrastructure and Transport as a part of the whole energy systems team.

Liam’s key areas of specialism include: innovation, transport decarbonisation, energy storage and energy networks, smart energy systems, building design and modelling, sustainability and the influences between new technology and people.