The Plus advent calendar door #20: Can we build a low carbon energy network?

Behind today's door we find one of the most important issues facing us – climate change.

To help mitigate climate change the UK government has pledged to decarbonised UK electricity supply by 2035. That's a huge science and engineering challenge on a very tight deadline. In this episode we talk to two people who know all about the challenges involved: Chris Dent, Professor of Industrial Mathematics, and Lars Schewe, Reader in Operational Research, both of the University of Edinburgh. Both helped to organise an intensive two week "deep dive" workshop on the Mathematics and statistics for low carbon energy systems earlier this year as part of a longer research programme at the Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences (INI) in Cambridge.

Chris and Lars tell us why decarbonising the energy network also resents huge mathematical challenges — and why the effort isn't unlike the Apollo mission that got people to the Moon in the 1960s.

You can read more about the topic discussed in this episode in this article.

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Return to the Plus advent calendar 2023.

This content was produced as part of our collaboration with the Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences (INI) – you can find all the content from the collaboration here.

The INI is an international research centre and our neighbour here on the University of Cambridge's maths campus. It attracts leading mathematical scientists from all over the world, and is open to all. Visit www.newton.ac.uk to find out more.