Skills crisis could thwart renewables target

The UK lacks the necessary skills to achieve the Government’s target of producing 10% of our electricity from renewable energy sources by 2010, according to an independent report published by the Institute of Physics.

The report “The Role of Physics in Renewable Energy RD&D” by Judith Bates and Nikolas Hill of Future Energy Solutions, part of AEA Environment, highlights the UK’s lack of general technical skills as well as more specialist skills, a major factor which will hamper Britain’s ability to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and create a sustainable mix of clean, safe energy.

“A solution to this problem would be to estimate the future skills and educational needs, from R&D through to applied engineering, and make an effort to ensure these skills are provided,” says co-author Judith Bates.

The report highlights the fact that there are very few post-graduate opportunities in the development of renewable energy technologies or fuel cells. According to the report, the difficulty in obtaining funding for interdisciplinary or multi-disciplinary research topics is preventing many from pursuing research in this area. It calls for a more flexible approach to funding for research in this field, and for a clear indication from Government of the importance of investing in this area of research.

The report surveys existing renewable-energy technologies and also looks at new technologies being developed in the UK. It reveals that the UK could be a world-leader in two important areas: photovoltaic energy and wave or tidal energy. In both these areas the UK has a number of universities with significant research capability.