Industry
High levels of emissions are associated with the production, consumption and transport of goods. Our research investigates the impacts that new technologies might bring to energy use in these sectors – especially the steel industry – and ways in which carbon emissions can be reduced. CIED’s research also explores broader challenges facing fossil-fuelled industrial production such as efforts aimed at divestment and stranded assets.
Projects
Exergy Economics
Exergy Economics is an emerging field that has the potential to throw new light on the relationship between economic growth and energy consumption.
Energy demand and the UK steel economy
How has the UK decarbonised by de-industrialising? This project examines questions of energy demand and consumption in the UK, with a particular focus on the country’s steel industry.
The energy implications of automated and smart freight mobility
What are the expected impacts of automated vehicles and smart mobility on energy demand in UK freight transport? How are these technological innovations legitimised by industry, policymakers and other actors? This project aims to find out.
Grassroots innovation in low energy digital fabrication
Rapid advances in open-source, small-scale digital design and fabrication technologies are opening up new possibilities for decentralised, networked, user-led manufacturing. A confluence of new technologies (e.g. the 3-D printing ‘revolution’), new business models (e.g. ‘personalised manufacturing’), and new social movements (e.g. ‘open-source, commons-based, peer-production’), are prompting claims about the ‘reconfiguration’ of production and consumption. For …
