Why is a Trinity Research Centre in Low Carbon Technologies Needed?

The Centre responds to several urgent societal Driving Factors:

• World population and quality of life is increasing. Both factors are leading to a significant growth in energy utilisation which produces climate warming GHG emissions.
• Conventional energy utilisation is predominantly from fossil fuels, majorly sourced from geopolitically instable regions. Renewable energies are heavily reliant on other finite raw materials.
• Laws, economic policies, investment agendas and human behaviours on low carbon technologies have long timescales for change, and high costs to not change.

The Centre identifies Specific Challenges to address these Driving Factors:

• Many Low Carbon Technology concepts are proofed in principle, but wide-scale deployment is limited due to techno-economic gaps which require careful RD&D on a specific basis.
• Rigorous methodologies that ensure a truly sustainable low carbon impact across the entire technology concept life cycle do not exist. Meticulous and usable tools for the calculating, measuring and reporting of life cycle impacts are needed.
• Comprehensive understanding of the local and global non-physical impacts (i.e. personal and societal affordability, political sustainability, migration, legal know-how, fairness), of low carbon technologies when deployed at the massive scale does not exist.
• Nationally and globally, information-sharing mechanisms to urgently mature many of the low carbon technologies to economic viability, and to convert research learned knowledge into government policy, are deficient and need to improve dramatically.
• Nationally, there is a lack of advanced science/engineering technical skills and facilities, that can meet #4 and #5 above, and of a commitment to these.

The Centre implements the following end-to-end methodology in configuring knowledge-led Solutions to these Challenges:

• Analyse the full Just Transition costs when developing low carbon technology concepts.
• Systematicaally apply techno-economic and life-cycle analysis at each stage of technology development through to deployment.
• Investigators will propose (“bottom-up”) Research Themes, which will be orientated to address the “top-down” imperative of urgent, scalable and affordable deployment of low carbon technologies. (The Research Theme Proposal form accompanies this document).
• Require the inter-disciplinarity in research (Theme) that low carbon technology concepts need for successful deployment.
• Strategically organise our research and training programmes, including recruitment, to address key knowledge gaps in low carbon technology concepts, which we rigorously identify for probable massive global impact.
• Professional and prudent management of knowledge generating resources (i.e. people, equipment, finances) to ensure sustainability and growth.
• Continually orientate our bottom-up research by engaging with, and disseminating to, all relevant stakeholders – policy makers, the public, representative bodies, research communities, industry and enterprise.