Have you ever wondered what new scientific breakthroughs are needed to support the world’s transition away from fossil fuels?

With the vast deployment of wind, solar, batteries and other sustainable technologies, what is there left for the scientists to do?

In this article, I will share my insight into this subject based on the knowledge I have gained from completing a PhD in experimental Physics before embarking on a 15-year career in the energy industry.

The Problem

We know from climate science that human activities are changing the chemical composition of our atmosphere, leading to warming and consequently a change in our climate.

Climate science is very well-researched and the large-scale effects on our climate and atmosphere are understood. Ongoing research will help us to get more granularity on the impacts and models. This in turn can help us estimate timescales and localised impacts. The problem however remains unchanged, how do we produce the energy required for human civilisation without polluting our atmosphere?

Fossil Fuel

Fossil fuels are a fantastic store of energy. The energy is locked up in solid and liquid hydrocarbon chains and can be released and utilised through simple combustion with oxygen. The byproduct is primarily CO2 and heat (plus sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, volatile organic compounds, ash and a range of heavy metals).

Humankind has developed very effective processes for the extraction and use of fossil fuels and our modern life evolves around them.

The transition to carbon-free energy

The fundamental problem of the transition from fossil fuel power generation comes down to the power density of alternative sources particularly renewable energy like wind and solar.

	Power Density	(W/m2)
Power Source	Low Range	High Range
Natural Gas	200	2000
Coal	100	1000
Solar (Photovoltaic)	4	9
Solar (Concentrated Solar Thermal)	4	10
Wind	0.5	1.5
Biomass	0.5	0.6

The second challenge stems from the fact that renewable alternative sources are intermittent in their generation. Intermittent does not mean random. Scientists have become very good at weather forecasting and therefore it is possible to design an energy system to handle the intermittency.

My hypothesis, therefore, is that scientific breakthroughs are needed by the renewable energy sector to solve the following issues.

1. Generation of clean power at scale

Due to the inherently low power density of renewable energy sources (wind, solar, geothermal), it becomes very important to be able to manufacture and deploy the generation at scale.

2. Large-scale energy storage

To solve the intermittency issue inherent in wind and solar power generation it will be necessary to over install the generation capacity and use energy storage in times where excess power is produced.

This is already being done on a small scale in many grid systems but the needs to grow substantially. There are many forms of energy storage a table of which is shown below.

Storage Techniques	Storage Type	Efficiency	Energy Density
Compressed air energy storage	Mechanical	42- 54%	2- 6 kWh/m3
Pumped hydro energy storage	Mechanical	70- 85%	0.28 kWh/m3
Lithium-ion batteries	Electrochemical	>90%	300 kWh/m3
Lead-acid batteries	Electrochemical	85%	70 kWh/m3
Redox flow batteries	Electrochemical	75- 85%	25- 35 kWh/m3
Hydrogen	Chemical	20-50%	160 kWh/m3
Methane	Chemical	28- 45%	6.5 kWh/m3
Sensible heat (Heating of Materials)	Thermal	50- 90%	25 kWh/m3
Latent heat (Phase Changing Materials)	Thermal	75- 90%	100 kWh/m3
Thermo-chemical (Endothermic / Exothermic Reactions)	Thermal	75-100%	120-250 kWh/m3

The final solution will involve a mix of these technologies as they have different attributes either in charge/discharge times, degradation, cost, size and even geographic location (in the case of Hydro storage).

Areas of Research

1. Materials

New materials are going to be key across the sector for a wide range of use cases. These range from high-strength / lightweight materials which can be used in the construction of wind turbines and support structures. Removal of expensive or toxic substances in batteries and solar panels. There is even ongoing research into superconducting materials to increase the efficiency of electrical generation.

Scientific AreaS

• Material science
• Chemistry
• Physics

2. Manufacturing

One of the most underestimated challenges faced by the industry is the efficient scaling of manufacturing. This topic is one of the key drivers of Tesla’s success, whereby they were able to launch the first Giga-scale Li-ion battery factory which utilises incredible levels of robotics and automation. This leads to higher production capacities and lower costs.

The other is in additive manufacturing, where parts can be printed in materials like plastic, concrete or even metal. There are a number of advantages to additive manufacturing. 1. Parts can be made closer to the customer (printing wind turbine towers on-site) or, 2. Can have improved structural qualities (lighter weight or include complex internal structures for strength)

Scientific AreaS

• Machine Learning
• Machine Vision
• Robotics
• Laser Physics
• Material science

3. Coordination and control

Finally, all these distributed systems require mass coordination and control.

Scientific Areas

• Computer Science
• Machine Learning
• AI
• Blockchain ledgers

Final thoughts

The transition to a sustainable world is going to be fascinating. It is inevitable that we will make this change the only question is how fast and how much damage will be done during the process.

For young scientists and engineers, there are so many exciting fields of study which can contribute. I see the biggest impacts coming from Material Science, Computer Science and Physics as these are core to the main challenges.

Let me know your thoughts, what did I miss out on this list?

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