Energy Conversion and Storage

A growing population and rising living standards are increasing world demand for energy. This demand may soon outstrip the amount of usable energy that can be obtained using currently-available methods.

Materials chemists will help to develop new, sustainable energy conversion and storage technologies that can meet future energy demands without increasing harmful emissions of CO2.

• Sustainable solar energy technologies can be developed that efficiently harvest energy from sunlight anywhere on the planet at lower costs

• Innovative new fuel cells can efficiently exploit renewable sources of energy

• Next-generation battery and chemical energy storage technologies will enable us to flexibly store and transport energy, and to fully utilise intermittent forms of energy such as solar and wind