EFL Institute review 2023 final

Energy at Imperial College London Research | Innovation | Education

Institute Review 2023

Prepared by

A Korre, P Childs, F Teng, A Rhodes, M Lomberg, M Sokolikova, C McNally, G Eves, L McDermott, V Ebo

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Energy at Imperial College London

Energy Futures Lab makes a unique and substantial contribution to the College, industry and society at large through a diverse range of education- and research-focused activities.

We draw our strength from the excellence, outstanding performance and generosity of the numerous academics and researchers we bring together in research, education and impact creation across three College faculties.

Energy is a key enabler for society and a highpriority topic area. Fundamental and applied research in this area is a key opportunity for the College, building on extensive current activity with significant prospects for new, high-impact contributions and funding expected for the next couple of decades.

Visit Imperial.ac.uk/energy-futures-lab/

CONTENTS Introduction Our Strategy Members of the Institute Research Strategy

4 6 9 10

Assessing Credit for Activity and 12 Outputs Research Outputs

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Research Income

26

Policy Outputs

28

Spin-outs and Technology Transfer

30

MSc in Sustainable Energy Futures

32

Our Culture

34

Alumni Network

36

Doctoral Network

37

Communications and Media Societal Engagement Our Future

38 40 42

Three-year plan

42

Financial Summary and Forward Look

46

Route to Sustainability

47

Conclusions

49

Annexes

50

Energy Futures Lab

Introduction

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Energy at Imperial College London

Energy Futures Lab is one of the seven Global Challenge Institutes of Imperial College London. It was founded in 2005 to develop multidisciplinary, cross-faculty collaborations to tackle the broad range of energy challenges that the world faces through academic research and innovation.

We recognised as crucial the education of leaders of the energy transition and have established the Sustainable Energy Futures MSc programme with 50 highly qualified graduates each year and 650 graduate professionals already operating world-wide. Energy Futures Lab was last reviewed in 2017. This document presents our progress since that time and outlines our strategy and targets for the next three years.

Our Mission

Our Aims

Excellence in research, innovation and education through a culture of multi-disciplinary working that integrates the science, engineering and policy expertise at Imperial and, in collaboration with industry and other partners, produces systemic solutions.

Energy Futures Lab’s success in the next three years is embodied in these four aims:

Our Vision Energy Futures Lab is recognised as world-leading in energy research and education, as evidenced by our achievements that address global challenges and showcase Imperial College as a vibrant and stimulating place to develop ideas, innovative technologies and positively impact society in the UK and internationally.

1. Energy Futures Lab will have maintained (increased) the cohort size on the SEF MSc at 50 (to 70).

2. Energy Futures Lab will have credible and attractive value-propositions for: • prospective external collaborators that ensure funding is not a limitation on delivery; • policymakers that influence the international debate on the energy transition; • prospective students that ensure a topclass cohort every year on the SEF MSc; • Imperial College staff that ensure they get a significant return on their investment in Energy Futures Lab; • College central administration (VPR, Provost office) that ensure mutual alignment and support of Energy Futures Lab and the College.

3. Energy Futures Lab will have the necessary scalable and sustainable organisation and resources in place.

4. Energy Futures Lab will have successfully

benchmarked itself against other relevant organisations inside and outside the College.

Energy Futures Lab

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Our Strategy Our activities and targets outlined in our strategy aim to maintain and expand at the College a healthy, diverse and connected set of research activities, inspire and enable future leaders in the energy sector and aid College staff and students to create and amplify impact from their research.

Activities The activities we organise are focused on stimulating interaction across the discipline boundaries and exploiting the fruits of those interactions. The activities include: Sustainable Energy Futures MSc • regular review and update of the broad-based teaching of our MSc in Sustainable Energy Futures; • alumni communications, events and engagements for master’s students; • plan for staged SEF MSc cohort expansion.

Formulation and leadership of major bids to the RCUK, International Energy programmes and corporate funders and donors in major challenge topics • facilitate and deliver workshops for proposal scoping and co-creation; • support post-doctoral fellowship applications and secure ring-fenced funding for the College; • provide project management of large collaborative programmes; • provide seed funding for projects across the College.

Policy development support through hosting and contributing to internal and external events.

Tours and workshops for visiting delegations from academic, industry, UK and international government stakeholders.

Major speaker events including an Annual Lecture, Dennis Anderson Lecture and EDF Lecture.

Bi-annual Energy Futures showcase.

Networking for post-graduate and post-doctoral researchers.

Communication of College events and news via website, newsletters and social media.

Support of VPR/Provost-led strategic initiatives (e.g.

Institutional Strategy, Sustainable Imperial, Socially Responsible Engagement, Imperial Zero Pollution).

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Energy at Imperial College London

Members of the Kucernak Lab researching novel electrochemical diagnostic techniques for clean energy devices.

Targets Our targets during the current period include the following: • support up to 15 grant applications across Imperial per annum through our Research Development Manager programme; • run 5 major in-person and hybrid-access events per annum; • launch at least 3 briefing papers per annum; • deliver high-quality experience and achievement for the Sustainable Energy Futures MSc cohort; • engage with relevant UK Government offices and officers; • boost our social media reach across all current channels (LinkedIn, X, Insta, YouTube) by at least 10% per year for the period 2023-2026; • grow our new podcast channel.

Imperial is home to the greatest concentration of high-impact research of any major UK university RESEARCH EXCELLENCE FRAMEWORK

Betul Yildirim in the rock mechanics lab of the Minerals Energy and Environmental Engineering Research Group in ESE

Energy Futures Lab

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Energy at Imperial College London

Members of the Institute The institute is led by two co-directors who are seconded from academic departments on part-time basis on 5-year terms. The current co-directors are Professor Anna Korre (Department of Earth Science and Engineering) and Professor Peter Childs (Dyson School of Design Engineering). The directors are supported by an operations team as noted in the Annex.

Governance The Lab has two groups that support its management, governance and operations.

Membership of these boards is discussed in the Annex.

Research and PhD education is delivered through Departments rather than Energy Futures Lab itself, even where the lab is instrumental in obtaining and leading the research. The Lab often retains a role in managing the relationship with the funder/sponsor, either singularly or in conjunction with the College Enterprise/Advancement teams.

Advisory Board (AB): This is the primary source of external advice to the Lab. It was restarted in November 2017 and meets twice per year. The current membership reflects the broader challenge of a low-carbon energy system. The Board last met in December 2023.

The energy community at the College is both diverse and widespread across several departments in the Faculties of Engineering, Natural Sciences and the Imperial College Business School. We are in regular contact with over 300 academics and 600 postdoctorate researchers and PhD students; 200 of these colleagues, mostly academics and post-doctoral researchers, are official Energy Futures Lab affiliates.

Strategy Board (SB): Membership is drawn from Vice Deans and Heads of relevant Departments, touching on Natural Sciences, Engineering and the Business School. Its role is to inform and endorse the Lab strategy, and to provide a forum to attract support for interdisciplinary energy opportunities. The Board last met in November 2023.

A dedicated team of professionals within the institute assists in building connections, coordinating projects and highlighting successes at the College.

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Research strategy The central objective of Energy Futures Lab’s research strategy (2021-24) is to develop and support research that is of societal benefit and which enables the transition to a sustainable and low-carbon energy system.

The UK Government has legislated for a net-zero economy by 2050 and adopted the Climate Change Committee’s central recommendation in its Sixth Carbon Budget of a 78% reduction in GHG emissions (from 1990 levels) by 2035.

There is now an even greater urgency in deploying existing technologies and rapidly progressing emerging technology. Therefore, the dual goals of achieving net-zero emissions and the sustainability of energy systems form two of the foundations of Energy Futures Lab’s research strategy. The third foundation of our strategy is the digitalisation of energy systems, which we view as a key enabler in the drive for net zero and sustainability.

Digitalisation

Cross-cutting research and underpinning technology

Sustainable Fuels

Sustainable Power Materials for Energy

Net-Zero

Meeting the challenge of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050

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Energy at Imperial College London

energy futures lab

Policy & Innovation

Energy Infrastructure Low Carbon Cities & Transport

Sustainability Across energy technologies and systems

Net Zero

Here we concentrate our efforts on the decarbonisation of energy systems and the transition to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions across the UK economy by 2050. Significant progress has been made in areas such as the electricity system, where the penetration of renewables has been steadily increasing in recent years. However, we need to include all parts of our energy systems and consider the impact of increasing complexity, including the role of consumers and society at large to achieve substantial decarbonisation. The emphasis now must be on the difficult-to-decarbonise sectors, but also on the whole-system view of holistic solutions for several sectors.

Digitalisation Energy Futures Lab’s third area of focus is on digitalisation and data science and looks at crosscutting research to support the advanced technologies that underpin the energy transition. It reflects the increasing importance of data science techniques and the power of data to support decision making in complex systems. As such, we include energy digitalisation as a core part of our strategy. It relates closely to the other avenues of research in the sense that advanced data science techniques can be used to further the research and make advances that would not otherwise be possible, while it also represents the deployment of digital technologies across the sector.

Sustainability Sustainability in energy technologies and systems must be central to a transition to zero emissions in order to deliver a just transition that avoids any unwanted shift in environmental impacts. This means the sustainable use of resources, i.e. materials for energy applications, and the creation of sustainable fuels, with emphasis placed on a holistic view of resources and environment.

Energy Futures Lab

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Assessing Credit for Activity and Outputs

Energy Futures Lab is positioned to promote and facilitate interdisciplinary activity with research programmes, which are undertaken in academic departments across the Faculties of Engineering, Natural Sciences and Imperial College Business School. We work to secure funding and outputs for the College, often at the early stage in the proposal development pipeline. We regard ourselves as partners with the academic departments and the Enterprise and Advancement teams and share in the successes of the College as a whole in the energy field.

Energy Futures Lab coordinates and supports pipeline bids to a range of funders as summarised in the Annex, and outlined next.

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Energy at Imperial College London

Energy Futures Lab

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OUTPUTS

Research Research Councils The Integrated Development of Low-Carbon Energy Systems (IDLES) programme has brought together researchers from across Imperial College London to provide evidence to facilitate a cost-effective and secure transition to a zero-carbon future. This five and half-year, EPSRC-funded programme worth £6.5M plus cash/in-kind support from Industrial partners started in November 2018 and is led by Professor Tim Green, former Co-Director of Energy Futures Lab (2015 -2021). It has whole-energy systems analysis at its centre, aiming to create a set of linked models that together can represent the complex interactions within the energy domain and support long-term strategic planning and operation of an integrated energy system. Using this approach has the potential to enable large cost savings in providing decarbonised energy while ensuring security of supply and achievement of zero emissions.

The outputs provide evidence and tools to the academic, industrial and policy-making communities.

IDLES is supported by a consortium of external partners which includes our lead industrial partners Hitachi ABB Power Grids, EDF Energy and National Grid ESO, and other large industrial companies, SMEs and public sector parties.

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Energy at Imperial College London

These relationships ensure that industrial and policy needs are embedded in the research programme and that research outcomes are readily and rapidly adopted by various actors in the energy industry.

Industry and public sector partners, plus other stakeholders, also take roles on the IDLES Management Board and Steering Committee, bodies which provide essential input on programme direction and opportunities for impact.

IDLES has created excellent working relationships between its wide range of researchers who are distributed across seven academic departments.

Alongside publishing white papers and databases, we have published close to 100 academic papers, already highly cited. One in particular has received a great deal of attention in policy circles and the media. It is an international study into the rapidly falling price of offshore wind, published in Nature Energy, and generated a substantial amount of interest. It was picked up by over 100 news outlets worldwide, cited widely on social media and has the highest Altmetric Score for a Nature Energy paper.

https://www.imperial.ac.uk/energy-futures-lab/ idles

“Simultaneous innovations in policy and business models could accelerate the adoption of technical solutions that can decarbonise industrial energy systems.”

DR GBEMI OLULEYE, RESEARCH THEME CHAMPION (POLICY AND INNOVATION), ENERGY FUTURES LAB

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The Industrial Decarbonisation Research and Innovation Centre (IDRIC) award is a multi-

disciplinary, mission driven research and innovation centre addressing key cross-cutting challenges of industrial decarbonisation, focussing on the whole system, maximising opportunities and leveraging synergies through a place-based approach. IDRIC was set up under the Industrial Decarbonisation Challenge that aims to develop four low-carbon industrial clusters by 2030 and the world’s first net zero industrial cluster by 2040. Led

by Prof Maroto-Valer at Heriot Watt University with Professor Anna Korre as one of three Research coDirectors, the IDRIC programme has been designed to support the delivery of net zero clusters in the UK at scale and pace focused on: developing and derisking industrial decarbonisation solutions; devising effective engagement between industry, policymakers and research and innovation; enhancing impact of learnings out with the industrial clusters; informing policymakers leading to more effective policy and regulation; establishing mechanisms to increase skills capacity and diversity in the workforce and informing the general public and young people about net zero careers.

Moreover, our contribution to the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion ‘You can’t be what you can’t see’ media showcase featuring five academic, research, and support staff across our network has been very positively received as part of a unique communication tool that is enthusing and engaging schoolchildren, answering their questions on careers in industrial decarbonisation.

https:/www.imperial.ac.uk/energy-futures-lab/ research-projects/idric/

The Innovation and Growth Needs Inclusion and

engagement of all Talent in Energy (IGNITE Network+) is a four-year funded EPSRC project which

Dr Colleen Jackson, working on IDRIC Project 7.2 Electrolysis for green hydrogen and co-produced chemicals at scale https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1GScGuYJ5M

IDRIC projects worth £2.7M (to Imperial College alone, out of £20M for the IDRIC centre in the UK) have been secured across five academic departments in the Faculties of Engineering and Natural Sciences . The centre is in the process of securing initial one-year (2024-2025) bridging funding to synthesise learnings and disseminate findings from the cluster-focussed, challenge-led research delivered in 2021-2024, expecting a longerterm, substantial funding extension to the Centre to be secured.

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Energy at Imperial College London

was established in September 2022. It aims to support sustainable, abundant, clean and equitable energy for all by harnessing the talents of energy researchers from all backgrounds. The small (£50k) budget secured at the College (Professor Anna Korre) has been authorised by the VPR (Professor Mary Ryan) to be used to support relevant summer projects for UG students (UROP) and MSc thesis projects at the College. The team that worked in the summer of 2023 focused on the use of natural processing language (NPL) methods to assess inequalities in energy research and developed a qualitative and quantitative methodology to consider word frequency, word embeddings and ethical concerns in five energy journal publications over a five-year period.

https://www.imperial.ac.uk/energy-futures-lab/ research-projects/ignite/

Industrial decarbonisation of UK clusters

The Northern Endurance Partnership, enabling Net Zero Teesside and the East Coast Cluster are one of the areas that IDRIC project MIP 6.3 (Advanced multitemporal modelling and optimisation of carbon dioxide transport and storage networks) are studying.

IDRIC Wave 1 Projects • Development of an open-source toolkit to design and evaluate the performance of low carbon infrastructure for industrial clusters • Thermodynamic Models for Application in Industrial Decarbonisation • Advanced multitemporal modelling and optimisation of CO2 Transport and Storage Networks • Ammonia and hydrogen use for industrial heat and power generation (Part II) • Electrolysis for green hydrogen and co-produced chemicals at scale • Solid Oxide Electrolysis for CO2 Utilisation IDRIC Wave 2 Projects • Integrated design and optimisation for nationwide deployment of direct air capture units • Unintended consequences? Life cycle comparison of UK industrial decarbonisation pathways • An integrated framework for levelled up & low-carbon industrial clusters • VFA to PHA: Decarbonisation - A Route to Sustainable Plastics • Enabling low carbon fuel technology deployment for power and high-temperature heat across the clusters Flexifund • Establishing an Inter-Cluster Batchwise Carbon Capture and Storage Network in the UK

EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Green Industrial Futures (CDT-GIF) is a comprehensive CDT that has been selected for funding in 2023 (£9.2M from EPSRC, £5.78M match from academic partners and £3.55M industry cash and in-kind contribution) with the capacity and expertise to train a critical mass of doctoral researchers (100 students) in the topics of Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage (CCUS); green hydrogen and sustainable fuels; CO2 removals; energy & resource efficiency and systems integration.

Led by Professor Paul Fennel, Professor Yannis Hardalupas and Dr Sam Krevor at Imperial (20 UKRI and 10 industry funded PhDs), together with colleagues at Heriot Watt University, University of Bath and University of Sheffield, CDT-GIF is to launch this year with the first cohort of students joining in the autumn of 2024.

Energy Futures Lab

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Launch of the Digital Energy Demonstrator Facility, 22 January 2019

Industry The Hitachi (formely ABB)-Imperial Digital Energy

Demonstrator is a state-of-the-art £1M investment

which provides 24-hour energy demand profiles at 10minute resolution. It has recently been used to analyse working-from-home and electric vehicle uptake scenarios for a white paper. Progress has also been made on the design of incentives for demand management, completing an initial experiment with 146 participants into the time-sensitivity, or not, of their power usage via smart plugs. Since opening in 2019, the demonstrator has had over 730 visitors.

supplied as secondary data by commercial e-mobility partners (ARC Ride and Fika Mobility), to perform modelling and analysis to determine optimal battery swap station locations and technical configurations.

This work will be used to plan battery swap infrastructure in Nairobi and to inform related policy recommendations, with the aim of enabling e-mobility to reduce transport related emissions and air pollution in the city and improve the livelihoods of riders.

https://www.imperial.ac.uk/energy-futures-lab/ research-projects/chargeup/

The aim of the Equinor - Imperial Academia and Funded by P4G, a multi-stakeholder initiative that accelerates partnerships in Colombia, Ethiopia, Kenya, South Africa, Indonesia and Vietnam, ChargeUp! has tested the commercial viability of a Battery as a Service (BaaS) model by establishing a network of charging stations in Nairobi, Kenya, which will charge a flat battery swap fee for electric two- and three-wheelers.

Led by Professor Tim Green, Imperial College’s involvement in the project conducted in 2022 (£160k) involved the use of real analytics data from electric motorcycles and battery swap stations in Nairobi,

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Energy at Imperial College London

Research Cooperation is to continue the long-

standing cooperation between Imperial and Equinor and to stimulate research and competence development within strategically important areas. Led by Professor Anna Korre as academic champion, £1.9M of support during 2024-2028 is secured for the champion and MSc taught students across four FoE departments, Earth Science and Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Energy Futures lab.

Hydrodynamics laboratory The Hydrodynamics Laboratory is located in the Civil Engineering Building on the South Kensington Campus and has a tradition of excellence in wide-ranging areas of fluid mechanics with civil and environmental engineering applications.

The ocean basin at Imperial is the largest research-only facility of its kind in the UK, measuring 20m by 12m. This facility has a maximum operational water depth of 1.5m yet can accurately model both deep and shallow water marine environments through use of an adjustable bed system.

Energy Futures Lab

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"From laboratory to field, our research across the world aims to deliver real change and impact."

PROFESSOR SEVKET DURUCAN, PROFESSOR OF MINING AND ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING DEPEARTMENT OF EARTH SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING

International programmes The Energy for Future (E4F) H2020-MSCA-

COFUND-2020 programme (2019-2025) aims to

promote advanced research projects focused on the main technologies associated with the energy transition and the green transformation of the economy: photovoltaic and wind energy, the evolution of the electric vehicle, energy storage solutions and the consolidation of smart grids. Led by Professor Korre, the Iberdrola co-funded programme has secured £1.4M for Imperial to host eight post-Doctoral fellows for 24-30 months in the departments of Materials, Civil and Environmental Engineering and Physics. Following their time at the College and with our support, two of the three E4F first round fellows have secured assistant professorships in Denmark and India, while the third is now a senior researcher at a prominent Korean research institute. Five new fellows are joining the College in the first quarter of 2024.

https://www.imperial.ac.uk/energy-futures-lab/ research-projects/fellowships/e4f/ Round 1 E4F fellows

Dr Ritesh Kumar Development of design guidelines for Offshore Wind Turbines under extreme operational conditions (Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering)

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Energy at Imperial College London

Dr Soren Scott ScaleOx - Towards a scalable electrocatalyst material for water oxidation in acid (Department of Materials) Dr Suhyun Yoo Lattice Polarisation Engineering for Next-Generation Photovoltaics (Department of Materials) Current fellows Dr Bidhan Pandit Anionic Redox Materials for Anode-free Solid-state Batteries (Department of Materials) Dr Dariel Hernandez VIrtual particle-scale laboratory for Geotechnical Investigation of pile LoAding (Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering) Dr Enas Abd Elghafar High Efficiency Semitransparent Ternary Organic Photovoltaics for Agrovoltaic Systems (Department of Physics) Dr Livia Cupertino Unravelling the Role of Corrosion in Enhancing Driven Pile Shaft Capacity (Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering) Dr Sara Jimenez A new generation of multi-physics models to unravel the phenomenon of corrosion fatigue (Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering)

The Synergetic Utilisation of CO2 storage Coupled with gEothermal Energy Deployment (SUCCEED) project has brought together eight

partners from across academia, industry and SMEs interested in CO2 capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS). The project aims at accelerating and maturing the use of CCUS by developing, testing and demonstrating measurement, monitoring and verification technologies that can be used in most CO2 geological storage projects. The team has been working with two existing facilities at Kizildere in Turkey and Hellisheidi in Iceland. Led by Professor Sevket Durucan at the College, SUCCEED has run for three and half years, funded by ACT (€3.9M, £0.9M at Imperial), an international initiative to establish CCUS as a tool to combat global warming. With a partnership spanning the UK, the Netherlands, Turkey, Iceland and Italy, the team has already published over 40 academic papers with many more in progress as the project concludes.

Research has focused into the geochemical, geomechanical and geophysical response of reservoirs to CO2 injection, development of monitoring equipment and methods that have been tested in the field at the CO2 injection operations, the modelling of individual operations and techno-economic assessment and optimisation of field-wide/regional CO2 injection strategies to minimise life cycle environmental impacts.

Sustainable OPEration of post-combustion Capture plants (SCOPE) is an ACT-funded project

(2021-2024, €5.9M, £0.45M at Imperial) which aims to remove barriers to CCUS deployment and accelerate large CO2 capture projects by giving plant operators, regulators and decision makers access to the tools and data that are essential for improving our understanding of amine-based CO2 capture. The project will build new links between diverse stakeholders and facilitate the exchange of knowledge on technical and regulatory developments through interdisciplinary research and collaboration and the creation of the SCOPE "Stakeholder, Policy, Research and Industry Network" (SPRINT), which has been holding thematic seminars for external stakeholders. Professor Korre is the UK lead (Heriot Watt and Sussex Universities, the Environment Agency and Cambridge Environmental Research Consultants) and PI at Imperial. Our focus at the College is the development of an environmental impact and human health hazard assessment strategy for amine emissions around PCC facilities, aiming to develop environmental quality standards for such operations tailored to the specifics of the environment and industrial activities around such facilities.

https://www.scope-act.org/

https://www.imperial.ac.uk/energy-futures-lab/ succeed/

The Advanced multitemporal modelling and

optimisation of CO2 Transport, utIlisation and stOrage Networks (ACT!ON) is a three-year

international research project (2022-2025) aiming to establish how an efficient infrastructure connecting CO2 sources with geological storage and utilisation options can be developed as part of regional decarbonisation efforts. Led by Professor Korre at Imperial (€3.9M, £0.9M at Imperial), ACTiON aims to research and develop a multitemporal integrated assessment model to support stakeholders in the planning and design of large-scale, flexible CO2 transport, utilisation and storage networks, and enable reporting on decarbonisation efforts while addressing the impacts of geological and engineering constraints, the effect of the economic conditions and regulatory environment and the unavoidable uncertainties faced in defining them. The multitemporal modelling capabilities being developed will be applied to a number of case studies, that cover the approaches to CCUS network development in different EU Member States (UK, Netherlands, France, Romania), the US and Canada.

https://www.action-act.org/

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Researchers from the SUCCEED project, led by Imperial College London, conducting field ork in Iceland. The project aims to accelarate the use of carbon capture, utilisation and storage technologies by developing, testing and demonstrating measurement, monitoring and verifi ation tools that can be used in most geological storage projects.

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Energy at Imperial College London

Energy Futures Lab

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Donations The Transitions in the Energy System Baillie

Gifford Academic Cluster at the College is

supporting PhD students and post-doctoral researchers to explore topics in the transition of energy systems to zero carbon operation. Baillie Gifford are an investment management firm, which is wholly owned by partners, managing a large portfolio of funds directed towards the energy sector and with a keen interest in sustainability. Our work covers two broad areas: the changes in electricity systems needed to maintain secure and reliable operation in the absence of generators fuelled by natural gas, and the role of hydrogen and carbon capture and storage in the broader energy system. The cluster is led jointly by Professor Tim Green and Professor Anna Korre with a budget of £450k over a period of 3 years (2022-2025). Our team of PhD students and post-doctoral researchers are engaging regularly with the sponsor team and provide them with insights and latest knowledge from their research, informing their understanding and decision making for very large investments in energy infrastructure and production projects.

We are providing support for up to eight PhD

studentships, made possible by the generous funds (£0.7M) received through the Taylor Donation. These studentships have been

specifically designated to facilitate research in the field of energy policy, encompassing various areas such as environmental aspects and the adaptation of both existing and emerging energy technologies for practical applications. The funds are being used to support a shared cohort of both the Energy Futures Lab and the Grantham Institute – Climate Change and the Environment. Four students have been selected in the last quarter of 2023 and are expected to join the College in early 2024 and engage in the associated PhD training and activities of both institutes, as well as cohort specific training. The primary goal of the PhD research projects sponsored through the Taylor Donation is to enhance our understanding of energy-related challenges and develop innovative solutions with a positive impact on energy supply, demand reduction, and climate change.

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Energy at Imperial College London

Carbon capture pilot plant Stretching over four floors, the carbon capture pilot plant is at the centre of the Chemical Engineering Department, providing a fully hands-on discovery experience for students and researchers alike. The only facility in the world where undergraduate students are able to learn to operate such a plant, it attracts students and summer school cohorts from across the globe.

Built to the highest industrial standards, the plant is a core part of the training we provide to all of our young chemical engineers, typifying many of the features that graduates will encounter in the ‘real world’, and giving them skills that will be essential in their future careers.

Our futuristic carbon capture pilot plant is also a vital resource in the figh against climate change, demonstrating best practice in capturing and storing harmful carbon dioxide before it can be released into the atmosphere. We encourage leading industrial organisations to use our facility for research purposes, with the hope that one day the technology will be adopted on a much larger scale.

“We need to decarbonise in a holistic sense. Net Zero means we have to start thinking about everything.”

PROFESSOR CHRISTOS MARKIDES, PROFESSOR OF CLEAN ENERGY TECHNOLOGIES, DEPARTMENT OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING

Energy Futures Lab

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Materials for Energy 20%

5%

39%

Policy and Innovation

£68.3m

5%

15%

21%

Sustainable Fuels

£154.1m 28%

14% 14% 13%

9%

Low Carbon Cities and Transport

Industry funding

Public funding 26

Energy at Imperial College London

17%

Energy Infrastructure

Sustainable Power

OUTPUTS

Research Income

Research income at the College is shown by theme in the two figures on the right.

Very substantial funding has been secured in the review period resulting in a thriving research portfolio and Energy Futures Lab plays an important role in nurturing this. Please note that the figures on the right and tables in the Annex are for a period just under five years within Energy Futures Lab’s review period. The total funding awarded in energy over the review period is £222.4M with 31% from industry and 69% from public sources. Research income is taken from the formal College databases, filtered and screened for scope (see Annex). Reviewing these, it is notable that our themes attract variable support from industry and public funding sources, with the mature areas supported more strongly by industry (e.g. sustainable fuels), as compared to emerging technologies that attract more public funding (e.g. sustainable power). It is also notable that many of the top grant holders are senior academics, and that gender balance is low. It is also clear that in mature areas there is higher diversity across academics and respective home departments, whereas in emerging disciplines a few prominent academics lead as large overall research portfolios. Moreover, energy themes that require fundamental laboratory research are able to attract the higher value grants necessary, as compared to policy, and the more computational systems research areas.

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IMPACT

Policy Outputs

Policy impact is an important objective of UKRIfunded work as well as corporate funders and, indeed, the College’s own priorities. Energy Futures Lab provides a leading role in energy policy activities in the College by facilitating meetings with national and global policy stakeholders, publishing briefing papers, commissioned research, blogs and submissions to calls for evidence, hosting policy-relevant seminars and lectures, and encouraging cross-college idea exchange and interaction on topics with an energy policy theme through our Policy and Innovation theme. Over the past five years, the Energy Futures Lab has expanded its policy capabilities, including the recruitment of a Research Fellow for Energy Policy Briefing Papers, the move to a Co-Director model allowing for increased policy engagement capacity, and the launch of both a policyfocused Briefing Paper series and a more industrially-focused White Paper series (Annex).

The Policy Briefing Paper Series The Policy Briefing Paper Series, launched in 2017, is an Imperial- and Energy Futures Lab-branded series of policy research papers aimed at communicating and demystifying some of the UK’s more pressing energy challenges to an intelligent general audience, including policymakers and regulators, industrial and commercial stakeholders, NGOs, journalists and the general public. The papers provide a rigorous, impartial review of evidence and substantive policy and research recommendations, leveraged by expertise from Imperial’s extensive community of energy academics.

Recent such reports include: Materials for Energy: This Briefing Paper investigates the current availability and development of materials for the energy sector.

It assesses the likelihood of supply chain issues as demand for low-carbon energy grows and examines the state of development of novel materials in the sector. The report makes policy recommendations to strengthen the security of critical material supplies. https://www.imperial.ac.uk/energy-futures-lab/ reports/briefing-papers/paper-11/

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Accelerating the transition to heat pumps: This Briefing Paper explores the potential impacts and feasibility of one approach to supporting the transition to heat pumps: leveraging early adopters by measuring in-situ heat pump installation outcomes and sharing these as case studies to enable peer-to-peer learning among consumers and installers. https://www.imperial.ac.uk/energy-futures-lab/reports/ briefing-papers/paper-10/ The Future of Home Heating: This Briefing Paper explores the prospects for the future of home heating with specific reference to heat pumps and hydrogen. The advantages, challenges, and technicalities of the two technologies are investigated and a series of policy recommendations are made to accelerate the decarbonisation of the UK's heating sector. https://www.imperial.ac.uk/energy-futures-lab/reports/ briefing-papers/paper-8/ Balancing Privacy and Access to Smart Meter Data: This Briefing Paper investigates four key elements of smart meter data privacy: existing data protection regulations; the personal information embedded within smart meter data; consumer privacy concerns; and privacy-preserving techniques that could be incorporated alongside existing mechanisms to minimise or eliminate potential privacy infringements. https://www.imperial.ac.uk/energy-futures-lab/reports/ briefing-papers/paper-9/ Digitalisation of Energy: This briefing paper investigates the impact of new digital technologies on energy applications. The overarching objective is to understand the effects these technologies will have on the current energy system, the new challenges they will pose, and the policies and regulatory measures which will assist in making them a success. https://www.imperial.ac.uk/energy-futures-lab/reports/ briefing-papers/paper-5/ Enabling the UK to become the Saudi Arabia of Wind? The Costs of Green Hydrogen from Offshore Wind In preparation are: The Future of Nuclear Power in the UK; Digital Technologies to Improve Energy System Resilience to Extreme Weather Events; An Analysis of the UK’s Ambitions for a Net-Zero Electricity System by 2035.

Energy Technology White Papers and scoping notes Aimed at industry stakeholders and policymakers, the Energy Futures Lab White Papers leverage the expertise of the energy community at Imperial to offer timely, impartial and academically rigorous assessments of energy technologies and reliable analysis on important energy topics. Recent White Papers include: Net-zero GB electricity: cost-optimal generation and storage mix: Using modelling from the IDLES Programme at Imperial College London, this White Paper sets out how Britain's electricity system can be transformed to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions, detailing a range of cost-efficient portfolios of electricity generation and storage technologies. The report finds the capacity of offshore wind needed to achieve net-zero electricity for Great Britain in 2035 is at least twice the existing 2030 target and that a substantial increase in the volume of energy storage is needed to support a system dominated by wind and solar energy. https://www.imperial.ac.uk/energy-futures-lab/reports/ white-papers/net-zero-gb-electricity/ Safe and sustainable lithium-ion batteries: This White Paper from Energy Futures Lab and the Institute for Molecular Science and Engineering investigates the safety and sustainability of lithium-ion batteries, exploring ways of reducing their impact on the environment and ensuring they do not pose a danger to the health of workers or users. The report calls for the implementation of sustainable procurement principles that can ensure the sourcing of battery materials with reduced environmental footprints. This requires the establishment of traceability and audit mechanisms, which also can provide essential information for end-of-life management that can contribute to the establishment of a viable circular battery economy. https://www.imperial.ac.uk/energy-futures-lab/reports/ white-papers/sustainable-batteries/

The Dennis Anderson Lectures Energy Futures Lab’s flagship policy lecture, the Dennis Anderson Lecture, is named after the late Professor of Energy and Environmental Policy, Dennis Anderson OBE, who led Imperial College’s first college-wide energy initiative, ICEPT, until 2007. Speakers have included Lord Deben, Chair of the Committee on Climate Change, Ian Marchant, former CEO of SSE Plc, Lord Stern, author of the Stern Review of the Economics of Climate Change, and Emma Pinchbeck, CEO of Energy, amongst others.

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29

IMPACT

Spin-outs and Technology Transfer

The energy sector has many sub-sectors with very different type of commercial activities across them.

Imperial has well-established mechanisms for protecting intellectual property and commercialising it through Innovations and there is a healthy amount of activity in the energy field as listed in the Annex.

Several of the Energy Futures Lab staff are directly involved in research commercialisation and our staff occasionally advise third parties interested in commercialising IP, as appropriate.

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Energy at Imperial College London

Energy Futures Lab

31

OUTPUTS and IMPACT

MSc in Sustainable Energy Futures

The MSc in Sustainable Energy Futures provides a grounding in the major features of global energy issues, sustainable energy technologies, and their interactions with economics, the environment and policy. Taking a quantitative approach to the study of technology and systems, the MSc attracts students with engineering and physical science backgrounds, although not exclusively. It will also appeal to those with post-degree experience who wish to gain a broader, more strategic perspective on energy issues.

We have a target number of 50 students (up from 45 in 2021) and ask for first-class equivalent degrees and the highest English language level. The reputation of the course attracts nearly eight applications per place available (Annex).

The MSc in Sustainable Energy Futures is an internationally unique course. Throughout the year our students have lectures and guidance from experts across all energy research areas at the College, as well as leaders from the energy industry. Combining the academic and industrial experience of the Faculty of Engineering with the Faculty of Natural Sciences and the Imperial College Business School, this course offers a unique multidisciplinary teaching programme.

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Energy at Imperial College London

The curriculum is broad and regularly updated with the course going under curriculum review in 2022. Our graduates are well placed to work in a diverse range of energy-related areas and are in high demand from employers. The graduates of the Sustainable Energy Future course, join a network of over 650 fellow Energy Futures Lab alumni who live and work in every corner of the world. Over 90% of our MSc in Sustainable Energy Futures graduates currently work in the energy sector.

In addition to the SEF MSc, we also run a programme to enrich and broaden the education of PhD students with interest in the energy domain.

Alumnus profile: Mervin Azeta, (MSc Sustainable Energy Futures 2015) With a passion for problem solving, Mervin Azeta has always been an engineer by nature. The tragic death of a family member during a power outage in Nigeria made Mervin an impassioned advocate for universal access to energy at a young age and shaped her decision to pursue a career in the sector. She went on to study Chemical Engineering at the University of Benin where, while working on her thesis, her interest in sustainable energy development was piqued.

After a period working as completions field engineer with Schlumberger, Mervin decided to deepen her understanding of the opportunities presented by sustainable energy and joined Energy Futures Lab’s MSc in Sustainable Energy Futures. “I wanted more. I wanted to know how to drive innovation to help power our world and reduce our environmental footprint. Imperial offered exactly what I wanted – the course, the exposure to innovative technologies, the policy and business side of things,” she explained in an interview to mark her Emerging Alumni Leader Award in 2022.

Alongside her studies, Mervin immersed herself in in College life, becoming co-chair of the Imperial College Nigerian Society, a role that allowed her to further develop her leadership skills. “At Imperial, we had exposure to collaboration, industry networks and stakeholders. We also engaged with different people from different parts of the world with different perspectives... we used to call ourselves the mini– United Nations,” she recalls. Mervin graduated with distinction in 2015 before returning to Schlumberger where she has held various engineering and leadership roles.

Mervin pictured with Imperial’s Professor Washington Yotto Ochieng and Provost Professor Ian Walmsley after receiving the 2022 Emerging Alumni Leader Award

Today, Mervin is an ardent ambassador for women in STEM and serves on top-tier boards and committees at the World Energy Council, Society of Petroleum Engineers, African Union and others. She encourages young women to pursue their passions, to speak up for themselves and for others, and to keep learning.

“Put your talent to work so it doesn’t go to waste – people won’t always push you. Also, attend events and meet people. We need other people. We need to find our tribe.”

“Imperial offered exactly what I wanted – the course, the exposure to innovative technologies, the policy and business side of things” Energy Futures Lab

33

Energy Futures Lab strives to nurture an inclusive culture that values and celebrates diversity, promotes equality, and respects the rights and dignity of all our staff, students, affiliates and stakeholders.

Guided by the College’s Equality Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Strategy, we aim to fully integrate EDI into everything we do. We recognise that this requires us to continually evaluate and, where necessary, adapt or change our policies, procedures, working practices and materials. In doing so, we aim to listen to and learn from our Imperial community as well as external partners and collaborators. We also recognise that our responsibility extends beyond the walls of Imperial.

As a leading UK energy institute, we will play our part in making the energy sector reflective of the society it serves, improving equality and inclusion in the industry’s workplaces and inspiring a new generation of scientists and engineers from a diverse range of backgrounds. We will always endeavour to use our influence to affect positive change in academia, research and industry and, where appropriate, we will share our learnings so others can benefit. Significant efforts have been made in this review period to improve the diversity of our speakers and to ensure that our visual and written materials reflect the values and culture to which we aspire. The 2019 and 2020 Annual Lectures were given by women for the first time (Dr Vera Silva, Chief Technology Officer at GE Grid

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Energy at Imperial College London

IMPACT

Our Cu

ulture

Solutions and Roisin Quinn, Head of National Control at National Grid ESO) and in 2021, the lecture was given by former UN Under-Secretary-General Dr Kandeh Yumkella, the first Black speaker in the series. This year, Emma Pinchbeck (CEO, Energy UK) delivered the Dennis Anderson Lecture, the first woman to do so.

In 2023, the institute also launched a Women in Energy seminar series to celebrate the work of women in the energy industry. The first seminar was given by Laura Fleming, CEO ofHitachi Energy UK & Ireland, with further seminars planned for early 2024. The institute has participated in Women at Imperial Week and in Black History Month, during which it published a series of interviews on the experiences of its Black alumni and students. Beyond communications, careful attention has been paid to achieving gender balance on the institute’s Advisory Board.

Energy Futures Lab

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IMPACT

Alumni Network

Energy Futures Lab has a vibrant alumni network with over 650 alumni worldwide who continue to connect with each other, our students and the Institute through a programme of events and professional development opportunities. The number of opportunities for alumni to get involved with the course has continued to increase with over 30 having direct input to course content in the last year, as well as over 100 participating in additional lectures, seminars and assisting on field trips since the last review. We have also started an Alumni Mentoring Programme which links any student from the current class with an alumnus for the time they are on the course. The recognition by alumni of the high calibre of students and graduates that we have on the programme has led to the creation of the Energy Futures Lab Careers Fair which is predominantly made up of alumni exhibitors who wish to recruit current and former SEF students to their respective companies. The MSc programme's commitment to academic excellence, innovation, and global collaboration has fostered a thriving community of professionals who are driving positive change in their respective spheres. Alumni make contributions not only to the course but to wider energy field, with many receiving accolades from the College, such as Mervin Azeta (SEF 15-16) who received the Emerging Alumni Leader award, as well as governments and agencies across the world, such as Anthony Wang (SEF 18-19) who was highly commended by the Energy Institute.

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Energy at Imperial College London

Doctoral Network

Over the past three years, our internal academic and research doctoral network has not been operating as an official service. However, during this time, we have continued to provide valuable networking trips and forward any useful opportunities to our members while supporting them on an ad-hoc basis. While the networks may have experienced a temporary hiatus, we are currently in the process of updating our lists and relaunching and revitalising our services. Our commitment to supporting our students and junior academics in their academic and professional journeys remains and, with the support of our two Research Development Managers who are working on nurturing crossfaculty collaborations and stimulating new research opportunities, we have already started to put together a programme of networking events, workshops and training opportunities to support the relaunch.

Energy Futures Lab

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OUTPUTS

Communications and Media Energy Futures Lab communications and events aim to increase engagement with the institute by its key audiences and strengthen Imperial’s reputation and influence in the energy domain (Annex). The work is carried out by the Communications Manager with the support of an Events Officer (recruited in 2022).

Policy communications A core objective is to increase the visibility and impact of Imperial research within the policy domain by supporting the dissemination of policy-focussed reports and promoting policy-relevant messages in the media. The institute frequently coordinates responses to Government policies and strategies, e.g. the Ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution, the UK Hydrogen Strategy, and the 2022 Energy Security Strategy, with Imperial commentary appearing in national media outlets.

Industry communications The team supports the dissemination of industryfacing outputs and hosts events to promote engagement with industry stakeholders. Prominent industry speakers have included Ørsted’s Duncan Clark; National Grid’s Roisin Quinn; and Vera Silva of GE Grid Solutions.

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Energy at Imperial College London

Key Communications Channels: Website: 15,000 unique visitors/year Mailing lists: 6,000 total audience YouTube: 8,000 subscribers X (Twitter): 6,700 followers Linkedln: 2,700 followers Event highlights: Chris Stark, Chief Executive of the UK's Climate Change Committee Dr Kandeh Yumkella, Former UnderSecretary-General of the United Nations Ian Funnell, Chair of the National Nuclear laboratory

Energy Futures Lab

39

IMPACT

Societal Engagement At Energy Futures Lab, we are committed to sharing our research and expertise in ways that inspire young minds, empower communities, and broaden the public’s understanding of complex energy issues. We do this, in part, through our involvement in a number of Imperial-led societal engagement initiatives such as the Great Exhibition Road Festival, Imperial Lates, and Sustainability Week, alongside outreach events run by partners including the Royal Society and the Science Museum.

In 2021, Energy Futures Lab collaborated with a PhD student from the IDLES Programme to produce a series of podcasts on Net Zero technologies, amassing over 2,000 downloads.

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Energy at Imperial College London

Great Exhibition Road Festival

The Great Exhibition Road Festival is Imperial’s flagship public engagement initiative, with a major live festival weekend every summer in South Kensington, supported by year-round community and school outreach activities and regular digital events. This celebration of the sciences and arts launched in 2019, with over 60,000 visitors attending across the weekend.

Exhibition Road is closed to traffic for the duration of the festival to make way for many local institutions – including the V&A, Royal Albert Hall, Natural History Museum and Science Museum – to collaborate and create a free programme of unique and creative workshops, talks, exhibitions and performances for all ages.

Imperial Lates

Imperial Lates is a regular programme of sociable and inspiring evening events, providing a fun way for London-based adult audiences to connect with Imperial’s latest research. Each event is centred around a topical and relevant theme, which is explored through talks, creative workshops, tours, games and more. Visitors can grab a drink and enjoy music while also getting the chance to meet scientists and researchers who are shaping the future in their field.

Energy Futures Lab

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OUR FUTURE

Three-year Plan Education Our priority in postgraduate taught activities is to maintain the worldleading role of our flagship MSc Sustainable Energy Futures in interdisciplinary energy education. We will aim to further diversify the cohort through targeted promotion and financial support while working closely with module leaders to maintain the students' high levels of progression and satisfaction. We will continue to leverage the support of our alumni and build on our mentorship programme as well as look at additional ways we can engage them to support the students, the course and the institute. Specifically, we will aim to build on our collaborations with alumni and engage them in new tailored workshops, guest lectures and invite them to sit on panels, which would provide invaluable opportunities for networking and amplifying the reputation of our SEF MSc programme.

Subject to additional resources being made available, we could gradually grow our cohort to 70 students, while ensuring high quality in our intake and delivery. In doing so, we will seek to review infrastructure related needs (e.g. space and facilities) and human resource requirements within the core Energy Futures Lab team and academic/ teaching fellows across the departments with which we work closely.

Research Research in the energy domain at Imperial College London is undertaken in nearly every Department covering the broad topic areas of energy infrastructure, power, fuels, materials, mobility and infrastructure, and policy. The three major themes spanning these six areas we identified in our research strategy for 2021-2024, namely sustainability, the transition to net zero and digitalisation, are still relevant.

Many energy research topics warrant support from the Energy Futures Lab research development team. We anticipate providing tailored support to established teams, as well as the early-/mid-career and growing academics and researchers in College. Our activities will continue building upon our strengths and expand in new areas where we perceive opportunities for fundamental and applied research arise.

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Energy at Imperial College London

These include the following: • Nuclear – enabling fission, fusion ramp-up activity • Energy infrastructure network ramp-up for circa four- or five-times capacity • Dynamic demand response • Energy efficiency in industrial systems, the built environment and transport • Critical materials for the energy transition, spanning production, use and recycling • Hydrogen and sustainable fuels technologies and systems integration • Industrial decarbonisation, carbon capture, utilisation and storage • Energy policy including through joint work with the UKERC team Moreover, we will focus on developing global research opportunities, working with international partners through the UK’s renewed association with the EU Horizon programmes and through innovative modes of collaboration with industry and international partners.

Policy A review will be carried out in 2024 of the Briefing Paper series with senior external stakeholders to ensure the papers are providing the right balance of accessibility and thoroughness, and that the topics chosen are of use and relevance to the wider energy community. We would aim to provide more in-person convocations and roundtable discussions around relevant and current energy topics, modelled on our successful roundtable discussions on electricity market reform. These could be held in conjunction with other Imperial College energy groups, such as the Grantham Institute and the UK Energy Research Centre.

Although we aim to and often do reply to Government and Parliamentary consultations, a more coordinated approach, bringing together expertise from around the College, to respond to consultations in a more structured and deliberate manner will be developed.

This would bring in the Forum as well as other experts around College.

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43

Communication Energy Futures Lab will maintain and grow its engagement with key internal and external audiences through a variety of communications channels, detailed in the Annex. It will continue to offer a varied events programme, occasionally introducing new events to meet the needs of the Imperial energy community and engage external stakeholders in Imperial’s energy research.

Where possible, the institute will use its communications channels to contribute to building a more inclusive and diverse energy sector, including by highlighting the achievements of students, alumni and staff from different backgrounds and providing a platform for members of under-represented groups to share their experiences with the institute’s community. In 2024, the institute will review and update its Communications Strategy in line with the new College Strategy and review its visual identity to reflect changes in the College’s brand.

Governance The Energy Futures Lab has existing structures including: • Line management for the Co-Directors by the VP Research • Twice-annually Strategy Board meetings • Twice-annually Advisory Board meetings • Weekly Co-Director meetings • Weekly all-staff meetings • Bi-weekly Research Development Manager meetings • Bi-weekly Communications meetings • Other ad-hoc meetings as necessary We will continue to seek guidance from the members of both our Strategy and Advisory Boards and make sure to evaluate the membership and include representation from areas of importance.

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Energy at Imperial College London

Professor Tim Green, Principal Investigator on the IDLES Programme at Imperial College London

“I think the biggest roadblock is the desire to do things incrementally. At some point you’ve got to make some quite big decisions.”

PROFESSOR NILAY SHAH OBE

Energy Futures Lab

45

OUR FUTURE

Financial Summary and Forward Look Energy Futures Lab operates as a cost centre under the Office of the Vice-Provost (Research and Enterprise). The main recurring income is from a portion of the fees for the MSc in Sustainable Energy Futures (with the remainder accruing to departments based on the teaching hours delivered). There is some additional HEFCE funding and some voluntary overhead return from large-scale research programs facilitated by Energy Futures Lab. All direct support of research staff and the overhead credit from research programmes is directed to academic departments.

2019/20

2020/21

2021/22

2022/23

2023/24

2024/25 Proposed Budget £'000

Actual £'000

Actual £'000

Actual £'000

Actual £'000

Proposed Budget £'000

224 735 -

246 653 59

215 691 -

231 1,073 -

175 1,093 -

175 1,148 -

224 1 1,183

274 1,230

299 39 1,243

272 21 1,494

81 12 1,361

92 12 1,427

694 52 33 173 951

641 9 121 8 779

601 48 31 163 173

Total Expenditure

508 7 6 229 750

1,015

889 3 28 169 178 1,268

Contribution before attributed costs

433

279

464

582

93

147

Attributed costs

433

279

464

527

34

79

Available contribution

115

61

169

442

222 *

178 *

Recurrent activities Funding body grants Student fee income Endowment income Research/ext. funded OHD Other income Total income Expenditure Staff costs Bursaries Tuition Fees Non staff expenditure Depreciation and space

*

925 3 28 169 155 1,280

*unsure why staff costs should be so different in College records, should be corrected in the next days to the normal value which should confirm our good financial status

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Energy at Imperial College London

*

Route to Sustainability The Sustainable Energy Futures MSc has been expanded to a cohort of 50 students. The MSc is expected to continue to be the major income source for Energy Futures Lab (after deduction of costs) and over the last few years we have seen a positive variance on our contribution to College due to income being better than budget as a result of the increased fees. Fees are expected to rise gradually in line with College policy.

Although new income will be attracted from facilitating and winning new large grants (public & corporate) facilitated by our staff, related OHDs are directed towards the departments. We also regularly use our core resources and staff time to support College bids. Further direct funding from various sources will be targeted that enable us to provide administrative support to large UK-wide programmes. Additionally, we will continue to coordinate efforts with the College’s Advancement team alongside our own alumni activities and this may generate income.

A possible new activity being considered is Summer / Winter School CPD in topics related to broad energy issues.

Sir Keir Starmer MP, Leader of the Labour Party, visits Imperial’s Carbon Capture Pilot Plant with President Professor Hugh Brady and Professor Mary Ryan CBE, Vice-Provost (Research and Enterprise) and Imperial Zero Pollution Lead.

Energy Futures Lab

47

Collaborate with us Partnership opportunities Ranked as the second most innovative university in Europe, and in the top ten in the world, Imperial College London is home to world-leading academic researchers.

At Energy Futures Lab, we value research that applies academic curiosity and rigour to real-world business challenges, bringing tangible benefit to society.

Among the most effective ways for businesses to benefit from our world-leading academic expertise are to partner with us in collaborative research and to licence our technologies.

Together with Imperial's Industry Partnerships and Commercialisation (IPC) team, we work with staff in the Enterprise Division, who have a deep understanding of science and technology and strong commercial acumen. They help academics and businesses work together to develop new insights and technologies and translate them into commercial opportunities.

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Energy at Imperial College London

Conclusions Energy Futures Lab makes a unique and substantial contribution to the College, education and society at large through the sustained and substantive positive impact it has been making for 18 years.

We draw our strength from the excellence, outstanding performance and generosity of the numerous academics and researchers we bring together in research, education and impact creation across three College faculties.

With our focus across energy supply and demand, we address key areas of interest to society. We have evolved over time and will continue to evolve at pace with changes in energy technology, industry, societal needs and opportunities.

The Sustainable Energy Futures MSc has been expanded to 50 students and provides excellent student experience and high-quality education as indicated by our external examiners, employment record and industrial collaborators as well as a substantive income stream for Energy Futures Lab.

Recent attention to the transition to net zero has generated on-going interest in Energy Futures Lab’s activity as demonstrated through increased interest in the briefing papers, events, enquiries from industry, affiliate activity and the Sustainable Energy Futures MSc. Energy Futures Lab continues to publish high-profile Briefing and White Papers attracting high levels of engagement from relevant Government offices and attendance at Energy Futures Lab events.

Energy Futures Lab has seen a substantive increase in its social media presence across all its channels and aims to grow each of these by 10% per annum.

Energy is a key enabler for society and high-priority topic. Fundamental and applied research in this area is a key opportunity for the College, building on extensive current activity with significant prospects for new, highimpact contributions and funding expected for the next couple of decades.

Energy Futures Lab initiates and offers support to research bids and has doubled the resource allocated to this key activity.

Energy Futures Lab

49

Annexes

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Energy at Imperial College London

Membership of Governance Boards Advisory Board Name Ian Funnell (Chair) Damitha Adikaari Dr Will Cavendish Doris Fujii Emma Pinchbeck (until Sep 2023) Roisin Quinn Joanna Wade Professor Mary Ryan Professor Peter Childs Professor Anna Korre Dr Fei Teng Victoria Ebo

Position Chair of the National Nuclear Laboratory Department for Energy Security and Net Zero ARUP bp Energy UK National Grid The Association of Decentralised Energy Vice-Provost (Research and Enterprise) Co-Director, Energy Futures Lab Co-Director, Energy Futures Lab Director of Sustainable Energy Futures MSc Energy Futures Lab Operations and Networks Manager

Strategy Board Professor Mary Ryan (Chair) Professor Julie McCann Professor Ramon Vilar Compte Professor Washington Ochieng Professor Mike Lowe Professor Omar Matar Professor Sandrine Heutz Professor Tina van de Flierdt Professor Oscar Ces Professor Michele Dougherty Professor Richard Green Dr Simon Hepworth Professor Peter Childs Professor Anna Korre Dr Fei Teng Victoria Ebo

Vice-Provost (Research) Vice Dean (Research) Faulty of Engineering Vice Dean (Research) Faculty of Natural Sciences HoD, Civil and Environmental Engineering HoD, Mechanical Engineering HoD, Chemical Engineering HoD, Materials HoD, Earth Science and Engineering HoD, Chemistry HoD, Physics Imperial College Business School Director, Enterprise Co-Director, Energy Futures Lab Co-Director, Energy Futures Lab Director of Sustainable Energy Futures MSc Energy Futures Lab Operations and Networks Manager

Theme Leads and Champions Dr Oliver Buxton Dr Catrin Davies Prof Robin Grimes Dr Anna Hankin Dr Andreas Kafizas Prof Anna Korre Prof Christos Markides Prof Ricardo Martinez-Botas Dr Gbemi Oluleye Dr Aidan Rhodes Dr Aruna Sivakumar Dr Mark Wenman

Sustainable Power Materials for Energy Materials for Energy Sustainable Power (Solar) Sustainable Power (Renewable Fuels) Sustainable Fuels Energy Infrastructure Low Carbon Cities and Transport (Transport) Policy and Innovation Policy and Innovation Low Carbon Cities and Transport Sustainable Power (Nuclear)

Energy Futures Lab

51

Energy Futures Lab Core Academic and Professional Staff Name

Position

Funding: % FTE assigned to core budget

Prof Peter Childs Prof Anna Korre Dr Fei Teng Ms Victoria Ebo Dr Marina Lomberg Dr Maria Sokolikova Mr Conor McNally Mr Gavin Eves Ms Louise McDermott Dr Kathryn Wills Dr Aidan Rhodes

Co-Director Co-Director Director of MSc Operations and Networks Manager Research Development Manager Research Development Manager Communications Manager MSc Coordinator Events Officer IDLES Programme Manager Research Fellow (Briefing Paper Series)

Core: 0.50 FTE buy-out from department Core: 0.50 FTE buy-out from department Core: 0.40 buy-out from department Core: 1 FTE Core: 1 FTE Core: 1 FTE Core: 1 FTE Core: 1 FTE Core: fixed term 1 FTE IDLES Project: fixed term HEIF: fixed term 1 FTE

We also have a member of the Enterprise team with a dotted line of report to Energy Futures Lab (Dr Francesca Pietra and more recently Dr Hiba El Khouri).

This role has helped significantly with our corporate interactions.

Operations Team – the whole team (Academic Directors & Professional Services Staff) meets every Monday morning to provide project updates, review opportunities and to discuss challenges.

Overall funding received by the College in six energy themes in 01/01/2019 - 15/10/2023 period Low Carbon Cities and Transport

Policy and Innovation

Funder Group

Materials for Energy

Sustainable Fuels

Sustainable Power

Energy Infrastructure

Industry

13,660,237

26,385,101

6,195,815

9,123,708

9,603,265

3,419,375

68,387,501

Public funding

30,631,597

21,208,800

40,218,867

23,694,418

19,866,762

7,137,918

142,758,362

Research Councils

19,415,668

12,256,370

26,642,848

11,351,717

9,027,745

4,141,808

82,836,156

Other Sources

5,306,355

2,464,138

6,579,930

4,504,427

5,962,035

1,306,152

26,123,038

Charities

150,219

505,469

281,256

75,246

262,029

67,064

1,341,283

Govmt (Inc. EU)

5,759,355

5,982,823

6,714,833

7,763,028

4,614,953

1,622,894

32,457,886

44,291,834

47,593,901

46,414,682

32,818,126

29,470,027

10,557,293

211,145,863

Total

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Energy at Imperial College London

Total

Research projects supported directly by Energy Futures Lab

Awarded between 2019 – October 2023 through various funders.

Project title

Name of the PI

Funder

FI Phase Two: Alternative Chemistries

Monica Marinescu

FI/EPSRC

RAEng Chair in Emerging Technologies

Magda Titirici

RAEng

Humanitarian energy bid

Jenny Nelson

Research England - internal

Engineering acceptance: Connecting technology for heat system change to consumers and citizens

Rob Gross

EPSRC

Energy for Development

Anna Korre

Research England - internal

Aquifer thermal energy storage for sustainable decarbonisation of heating and cooling

Matt Jackson

EPSRC

Sustainable, Flexible and Efficient Ground-source heating and cooling systems (SaFEGround)

David Taborda

EPSRC

Barocaloric materials for zero-carbon heat pumps

Xavier Moya

EPSRC

Sustainable OPEration of post-combustion Capture plants – SCOPE

Anna Korre

DESNZ (previously BEIS)

Advanced multitemporal modelling and optimisation of CO2 transport, utilisation and storage networks – ACT!ON

Anna Korre

DESNZ (previously BEIS)

Decision support under climate uncertainty for energy security and net zero

Tim Green

EPSRC via Turing

Post-COP26: Turing and Net Zero

Tim Green

EPSRC via Turing

IGNITE Network+: Innovation and Growth Needs Inclusion and engagement of all Talent in Energy research

Anna Korre

EPSRC

Up-scaling solar hydrogen production

Anna Hankin

EPSRC

H2terascale - Improved oxygen evolution catalysis to enable terawatt scale hydrogen production

Ifan Stephens

EPSRC

Zero emission H2 production bid on AEM electrolysis

Anthony Kucernak

EPSRC

DIGIBAT: An automated high- throughput robotic platform for accelerated battery and fuels discovery

Magda Titirici

EPSRC

Smart assessment, management and optimisation of urban geothermal resources (SmartRes)

Matt Jackson

NERC

Energy Revolution Research Consortium (ERRC) - Plus EnergyREV - Next Wave of Local Energy Systems in a Whole System Context

Tim Green

EPSRC

AI for Environment and Sustainability Programme

Tim Green

Alan Turing Institute

Charge Up! Partnership (P4G)

Tim Green

World Resources Institute

Industrial Decarbonisation Research and Innovation Centre - IDRIC

Anna Korre

UKRI

Energy for Future

Anna Korre

EU Commission

SUCCEED, Synergetic Utilisation of CO2 storage Coupled with geothermal Energy Deployment

Sevket Durucan

DESNZ (previously BEIS)

Energy Demand Research Centre

Aruna Sivakumar

EPSRC

Total value is £19.4M about 10% of the total funding in Energy themes received by the College.

Energy Futures Lab

53

Top industry funders (over £1M, January 2019 - October 2023) Name of company

Funding awarded, £

China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation (SINOPEC)

11,250,000

Shell Research Limited

8,070,890

Petronas Research Sdn. Bhd.

5,478,528

Rolls-Royce Plc

4,730,676

BP International Limited

3,992,184

Beijing Aeronautical Science & Technology Research

3,000,000

Hitachi Ltd

3,000,000

ARAMCO Overseas Company UK Ltd

2,667,921

Shell Global Solutions International BV

2,637,278

SKF (UK) Ltd

2,270,000

Equinor Asa*

1,900,980

Mitsubishi Heavy industries Engine & Turbocharger

1,657,708

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd

1,351,515

EDF Energy Nuclear Generation Ltd

1,305,708

Total E&P UK Limited

1,225,000

* awaiting signature

Top Industry-Funded Academics in Energy (over £1M, January 2019 - October 2023) Name of academic

Funding awarded, £

Professor Yanghua Wang

11,655,000

Professor Mary Ryan

4,115,124

Professor Spencer Sherwin

3,000,000

Professor Martin Trusler

2,991,669

Professor Ricardo Martinez-Botas

2,657,120

Dr Amir Kadiric

2,270,000

Professor Daniele Dini

2,213,792

Professor Ifan Stephens

2,187,976

Professor Anna Korre

1,900,980

Professor Martin Blunt

1,803,916

Professor Omar Matar

1,591,361

Professor Erich Muller

1,495,978

Dr Matthew Eaton

1,481,117

Professor Magda Titirici

1,421,910

54

Energy at Imperial College London

Top public funders (over £1M, January 2019 - October 2023) Funding organisation

Funding awarded, £

Engineering & Physical Science Research Council

54,530,008

The Faraday Institution

16,294,012

Commission of the European Communities

10,081,151

EU Underwrite - EPSRC

6,959,353

EU Underwrite - Innovate UK

6,030,732

Natural Environment Research Council

5,922,649

Royal Academy of Engineering

5,541,301

Innovate UK

5,438,921

The Royal Society

5,012,420

Foreign & Commonwealth Office

3,058,376

Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

2,738,083

UK Research and Innovation

2,591,263

BEIS - Department for Business, Energy and Industry

2,235,042

European Research Office

2,002,883

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

1,990,279

AWE Plc

1,749,227

Science and Technology Facilities Council

1,745,465

Medical Research Council

1,677,355

Air Force Office of Scientific Research

1,588,578

European Space Agency / Estec

1,066,951

European Office of Aerospace Research & Development

1,032,655

Energy Futures Lab

55

Top Public-Funded Academics in Energy (over £1M, January 2019 - October 2023) Name of academic

Funding awarded, £

Professor Gregory Offer

12,776,977

Professor Magda Titirici

9,192,468

Professor Omar Matar

7,178,302

Professor Simon Bland

7,148,825

Professor Milo Shaffer

6,392,663

Professor Adam Hawkes

5,648,039

Professor Zulfikar Najmudin

3,928,295

Professor James Durrant

3,548,090

Professor Sylvain Laizet

3,177,407

Professor Anna Korre

2,706,522

Professor Matthew Jackson

2,490,717

Dr Artem Bakulin

2,403,616

Professor Robert Gross

2,354,247

Professor Goran Strbac

2,302,510

Professor Helen ApSimon

2,191,786

Professor Tim Green

2,116,044

Professor Bikash Pal

2,089,062

Dr Nuria Tapia Ruiz

1,767,725

Dr Rupert Myers

1,729,132

Dr Heather Au

1,724,974

Professor Stephen Skinner

1,699,754

Professor Helen Brindley

1,662,001

Professor Jenny Nelson

1,611,934

Dr Samuel Krevor

1,472,442

Dr Ludovic Renson

1,457,312

Dr Emilio Martinez-Paneda

1,407,341

Dr Qilei Song

1,363,789

Dr Oliver Buxton

1,290,141

Professor Sevket Durucan

1,256,151

Dr Oscar Calderon Agudo

1,178,281

Dr Samuel Humphry-Baker

1,115,685

Dr Rocio Diaz-Chavez

1,086,692

Professor Richard Templer

1,060,225

Dr Salvador Eslava

1,056,131

Professor Silvestre Pinho

1,040,399

56

Energy at Imperial College London

Policy Impacts

The Policy Briefing Paper Series has been highly impactful, both in terms of the breadth of engagement across the UK and global energy sectors and the depth of engagement with influential policy bodies, helping to develop and influence policymaking. The papers have increased visibility of the Energy Futures Lab ‘brand’ and have assisted Imperial College as being seen as a key player in the energy policy landscape.

Key metrics are showcased below.

• The Series has seen digital copies of the reports downloaded more than 12,000 times in aggregate, as well as hundreds of physical copies distributed at launch events, lectures and showcases and Imperial Lates public events. The most popular papers in terms of downloads have been the Digitalisation of Energy and Future of Home Heating papers at over 3,000 and 2,000 downloads respectively.

• Launch events, both physical (pre-2020) and virtual (2020 and beyond), have been attended by over 1,000 people in total, and online from over 50 countries.

• Papers have been cited in over 100 media outlets, ranging from national papers such as the Daily Telegraph and Daily Mirror, to regional outlets like the Evening Standard and Scottish Herald. Trade media are also well represented, with the papers cited in Utility Week and given a guest article in Carbon Brief.

• The papers have also led to invited talks at conferences and government departments. For instance, the security of supply paper was presented to an audience of BEIS officials at a lunchtime symposium, while the heat pumps paper was presented several times to Scottish Government officials. Following the electricity markets paper, we convened a series of six highlevel round-table workshops between BEIS officials, industry stakeholders and academics to discuss potential changes to electricity market structures along with the challenges and consequences.

• The papers have also led to engagement by industry and follow-on funding projects. SSE Energy Networks funded a report on the risks of digitalisation in the electricity networks following on from the Digitalisation paper, and likewise Hitachi R&D funded a piece on digitalisation and energy system resilience. The MCS Charitable Foundation funded the Briefing Paper on heat pumps and hydrogen boilers following on from our successful papers on demand response and smart heating.

• The papers have had significant impact in government and regulatory policymaking, with authors having informal meetings with BEIS, Ofgem, the CCC, the Scottish Government and Parliament to discuss recommendations, as well as the papers being cited in major policy documents – for instance, the Electricity Markets paper was cited by the CCC in their Progress Report to Parliament, the Digitalisation paper was cited prominently in BEIS’s Digitalisation Strategy and BEIS launched a 400k tender on smarter heating comparisons based on the recommendations of the Demand Response paper.

Energy Futures Lab

57

Knowledge Generation & Commercialisation Activities There are several spin-out companies from Imperial College in the energy field, listed as follows:

About:Energy

B2B service provider who measures battery parameters for use in computer models.

Bioataraxis Ltd

Sustainable, biobased surfactants for cleaning products and industrial applications

Bumblebee Power

Position-tolerant wireless charging solutions for electric scooters, autonomous systems, and portable devices.

CURVEX Technology Ltd

Focusing on the manufacturing and research and development of highperformance lightweight components

DyeRecycle

DyeRecycle technology is a non-destructive separation technology of textile waste components: fibres & dyes, allowing their independent recycling back to the supply chain.

RFC Power Ltd

Developing the world’s lowest cost flow battery, involving hydrogen manganese chemistry with lower levelised cost of storage.

SolarFlow

SolarFlow develops a solar panel designed to be more efficient than existing panels.

SolveTeq

Solveteq offers a low-energy and low-pollution solvent-based alternative to current smelting processes for recycling lead-acid batteries.

Energy topics are also prominent among the following patents filed through Imperial College Innovations: • H2 Quinone RFB • Manganese electrolyte management in redox flow batteries and fuel cells • New Additives for Permanganate Fuel Cell • Carbon negative amorphous precipitated silica (APS) for use as a supplementary cementitious material in blended cements • High strength anti-clogging concrete • Research in field relating to batteries • Oil monitoring device • Research in field relating to heat • Solvent-based Lead Recycling • High Surface Area Mass Exchanger for Capturing CO2 and Other Gases with Sorbents • Research in field relating to polymer properties • Online maintenance of hydraulic models for water supply networks through continuous monitoring and adaptive control • Biorenewable anionic surfactants derived from furoic acid and fatty alcohols • Dye extraction and recovery using ionic liquids

58

Energy at Imperial College London

• Dye extraction and recovery using ionic liquids • Photoswitchable molecules as heat storage materials • Research in field relating to batteries • Research in field relating to solar cells • Research in field relating to fabrication • Research in field relating to power transfer • Microscale device for sensing and energy harvesting • Solid Phase Fractionation of Lignin • Research in field relating to sustainable dye • Tunsgten boride neutron shields for spherical Tokamak reactors • Novel Distributed Intermediate Band Solar Cell

Communications, Events and Media

Mailing lists As of November 2023, the institute maintains a contact list of over 4.2k external contacts (2.5K of which are subscribers to the institute’s newsletters) and 1.8K internal contacts (1.3k of which are newsletter subscribers).

Unknown

Academia

226 484

Other

NGO

437

127

Media 36

516 155

Other Industry

Energy or related 166 Government

Figure A.1 – External subscribers to Energy Futures Lab mailing list by sector.

Communication Activities

Internal subscribers by Department: Subscribers Aeronautics

28

Bioengineering

8

Business School

71

Centre for Environmental Policy

102

Chemical Engineering

179

Chemistry

84

Civil and Environmental Engineering

62

Computing

14

Design Engineering

40

Earth Science and Engineering

77

Electrical and Electronic Engineering

102

Energy Futures Lab

44

Faculty of Medicine

9

Finance

1

Grantham Institute

22

Innovation & Entrepreneurship

1

IMSE

1

ISST

3

Life Sciences

19

Management

2

Materials

82

Mathematics

13

Mechanical Engineering

80

Other

210

Physics

48

The Energy Futures Lab engages with its key audience through a wide range of communication channels, including: • • • • • • • • •

Website Events (in-person and hybrid) and occasional sponsored Prestige events Social media (LinkedIn, X, Insta, YouTube) Podcasts White Papers & Briefing papers Dalby Court frontage displays The Sustainable Energy Futures conference The biennial Future Energy Festival Support for energy related conferences

News Items: 58

Energy Futures Lab

59

0

60

Albania Argentina Australia Austria Bahrain Belgium Brazil Burma (Myanmar) Canada China Colombia Costa Rica Cyprus Denmark Egypt France Germany Ghana Greece Honduras Hong Kong India Indonesia Ireland Israel Italy Japan Jordan Kazakhstan Latvia Lebanon Luxembourg Malaysia Mexico Morocco Nicaragua Nigeria Norway Oman Pakistan Palestinian Territory Poland Portugal Romania Russia Saudi Arabia Sierra Leone

Student numbers

Number of students 600

400

100

0

539

500 455

379 401

103

392

107

Applicants

20

Energy at Imperial College London

358

300

200

101 102

Offers

112 116

50 49 47 47 42 52

2017-18 2018-19 2019-20 2020-21 2021-22 2022-23

Students

Figure A.2 – Illustration of numbers of applicants relative to offers and student intake for SEF MSc

60 45

40 24

10

Figure A.4 – Breakdown of total student intake from 2017-18 to 2022-23 by region.

2017-18

80

2018-19

38

2019-20

7

2020-21

86

2021-22

129

2022-23

66 0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

Figure A.3 – SEF MSc alumni attendance across Energy Futures Lab events (careers fair exhibitors, speakers, lectures, reunions).

51

20

Singapore Slovenia South Africa Spain Sudan Switzerland Thailand Turkey Uganda United Kingdom United States Uruguay

12

Sustainable Energy Futures MSc class at the Westmill field trip, 28 Sept 2023

Energy Futures Lab

61

62

Energy at Imperial College London

SWOT Analysis of Energy Futures Lab and related research landscape Strengths • • •

Weaknesses

Reputation as a major player in energy

•

Competitive funding constraints

research

•

The interdisciplinary nature of energy related

Significant alumni base from the

research requiring high levels of collaboration

Sustainable Energy Futures cohort

across departments and across institutions

Reputation with Government for high quality

•

briefing and white papers •

•

Substantive Energy Futures Lab social media

substantive contributions •

research efforts on, for example, energy

and YouTube

vectors, fuels, and energy efficiency measures

High-quality student experience and Futures MSc

•

Policy and regulatory changes can negate

channel presence across LinkedIn, X, Insta •

attainment for the Sustainable Energy •

Long research and development timelines for

Energy storage remains a substantive technological challenge

•

Responsible and affordable renewable energy

High-quality and well-attended events

remains a technological and societal

programme

challenge

Significant engagement from the Industrial Advisory Board

Opportunities •

Engagement at scale in Catapults

•

Engagement with ARIA

•

Engagement with the EU research funding

Threats •

Competition from both UK, EU and wider world-class institutions

•

Changes in funding priorities towards UK and commercial activity

stream •

Fusion developments

•

Leveraging the strong Imperial capabilities in our different themes o battery energy storage technology and fundamental research

•

Catapults undertaking activity to the exclusion of universities

•

Staff capacity to engage in research bids

•

Tight deadlines for research bids

•

Challenges in submitting research bids

o grid and networks expertise and

through very busy research offices and

o hydrogen and related materials

assessment and refinement of submissions

ensuring sufficient time for the internal

reputation

technology and fundamental

•

Slow contracts negotiation and processing

research o solar and wind technologies

o sustainable fuels and chemicals o whole systems

Energy Futures Lab

63

For more information visit

Imperial.ac.uk/energy-futures-lab energyfutureslab@imperial.ac.uk

@energyfuturesic linkedin.com/company/imperialcollege-london-energy-futures-lab/ energyfutureslab energyfutureslab