Nora Blascsok reports back from CREDS launch & EUED showcase.
The great and the good of the energy sector came together to celebrate the launch of the new UK Centre for Research on Energy Demand Solutions (CREDS), as well as the final showcase of the six End Use Energy Demand (EUED) Centres at the Methodist Central Hall, Westminster on 20 September 2018.
The event started with Nick Eyre, Director of CREDS and Professor at the Environmental Change Institute at the University of Oxford, introducing the challenge of reducing energy demand and setting out the agenda for the new research centre in terms of research, communications and impact. This was followed by a presentation by the research councils EPSRC and ESRC, with Jim Fleming – Head of Energy Theme from EPSRC talking about the vision for CREDS, expressing hope that it will raise the profile of energy demand research for the public, government and within research circles.
The highlight of the day was the EUED showcase where the six EUED centres, including the Centre on Innovation and Energy Demand (CIED) showcased their findings. Each centre had ten minutes to talk about their research while the delegates milled around and had tea and cake.
CIED Director Prof Benjamin Sovacool, Co-Director Prof Steven Sorrell and Doctoral Researcher Donal Brown presented the group’s findings, with Prof Sovacool giving an overview, Prof Sorrell talking about CIED’s work on Transport and Rebound and Mr Brown (soon to be Dr) talking about CIED research on Housing and Buildings.
The EUED showcase was followed by the keynote speeches. First Juliet Davenport from Good Energy talked about the Grand Challenges set out in the Industrial Strategy and their impact on the energy system. Then, Prof Jim Skea (Imperial College London) talked about his work on the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report and the linkages between CREDS research and the work of the IPCC.
Read Nick Eyre’s blog on the new CREDS website on ‘New challenges for energy demand research’.
Take a look at the CIED posters and booklet with highlights from all the CIED projects.
