Cambridge Cleantech looks to wider leadership role
Cambridge Cleantech and Cambridge Science Park hosted a highly successful conference on Energy and Renewable Technologies at Bradfield Centre on September 17.
The event followed the recent announcement by Science Park director Jeanette Walker that the city can become “a global leader of renewable and sustainable technologies”, which will include a new Centre for Energy and Renewable Technology Research based at the old Abcam building on the Park.
It was evident from the huge turnout - tickets were sold out a month in advance - and the activity after the event that there is a demand for a renewable energy centre to be established on the Cambridge Science Park, to harvest the many talents Cambridge has to offer in the sector. At the Bradfield Centre, 140 participants listened to entrepreneurs and academicians reveal the newest technologies to generate and store energy, how to sustainably improve battery life, the future of reducing energy usage in our homes through smart power systems, and the possibility of turning skyscrapers into power stations using transparent photovoltaic panels.
The keynote session was delivered by Prof John French, executive director of the sustainability business hub and accelerator at the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, who gave an overview of global opportunities and challenges in energy and renewable technologies. This was followed by talks from Dr Anna Wise from Innovate UK and Prof David S Hall, scientific programme manager at the Faraday Institution, who delved into the latest research in battery technologies coming out of Cambridge and the UK.
Later came the elevator pitches from some of the most innovative companies in Cambridge working in leading-edge energy storage, novel renewable energy sources and energy management, including Powys-based River Simple whose hydrogen car is looking promising, 8Power, Ricardo, Talga Technologies, Echion Technologies, Zinergy, CamPower, DZP Technologies and Epicam.
“I was delighted that the conference was a capacity sell-out,” said Martin Garratt, CEO of Cambridge Cleantech, “which underlined the current importance of much-needed storage solutions as the holy grail of the energy sector.
“The speakers and delegates highlighted the point that so much renewable energy is now being generated that the grid is not currently smart enough to take the capacity, resulting in micro-grids being created which, for example, link solar farms to local housing schemes and thus by-passing the grid. It is also becoming clear that in the future we may all be trading electricity, either through renewable energy generation in our homes or through our electric vehicles which may take and transmit energy from suppliers at different times of the day.”
Martin concluded: “The future is exciting for leading-edge Cambridge-based firms such as Origami Energy which can provide solution in these areas.”
Cambridge Cleantech is hosting an event on October 14, in collaboration with Smart Cambridge, on how to implement the vision of a smart, innovative NE Cambridge district. The key themes that will be tackled are Smart City planning, existing case studies in the UK and elsewhere and progress on Smart Cambridge.
"The opportunity here is to transform the area into an innovation district of Cambridge and a showcase for new ideas in smart living, and we welcome members of the public to come share their views," said a spokesperson for the event.
