Doing Cold Smarter - Policy Commission

Title:                Birmingham Energy Institute - Doing Cold Smarter 

Duration:        2.59 mins

Begins

[University of Birmingham Logo]

[Birmingham Policy Commission Logo]

[TEXT: Birmingham Energy Institute, Doing Cold Smarter]

[Toby Peters, Visiting Professor in Power and Cold Economy] The demand for cold is obviously growing massively in the UK and other developed markets but equally in the developing world we're going to see three billion new middle classes over the next 10 years, all of them will have a demand or have a lifestyle which demands cold. If that cold uses traditional diesel and other methods it will be highly polluting.

The commission on cold is going to look at cold and cooling at a system level, specifically at the moment LNG to me is gas packaged in cold and when we import it we throw the packaging, the cold away and then 10 miles down the road we burn diesel to produce cold, that's madness.

[Professor Martin Freer, Director, Birmingham Energy Institute] The Birmingham Energy Institute brings together a whole range of energy related research from cold and thermal energy technologies through to fuel cells hydrogen storage. It combines technology with economics and policy and that is the strength bringing everything together in one place. The cold energy technology, cold economy is a really crucial component of that understanding and technology through to policy is a really really key element.

[Professor Richard A Williams, Pro Vice Chancellor and Head of the College of Engineering and Physical Sciences] Winning a major grant under the great eight technology schemes for storing energy using cold was transformational for our research agenda here at the university. It's opened up our eyes to the opportunities for cold in transport and refrigeration, in dealing with food and water issues across the world. So it's very natural for us now to be starting this cold commission in fact our early policy work has already been reported to the house of commons in their scientific journal and we're looking forward to opening up the agenda much more strongly through the commission. 

[Robert Elliott, Professor of Economics] Within the Birmingham Energy Institute we also take a social science on business perspective when we look at energy economics and environmental economics. Importantly we want to look at the role of environmental regulations and how that impacts the competitiveness of firms, the productivity firms and the location of firms. This has very important implications when we talk about the cold commission, we take a global perspective including Brazil, China, Russia, India where the cold storage and cold economy is going to be crucially important in the future so we need to take a global perspective as well and to bring social science in with the hard science and this is the role of the environmental and energy cluster here at the University of Birmingham.

Professor Richard A Williams] Over the last two years we've established a world-leading team in all the skills around cold and energy and we're now beginning to consult with all sorts of parties around the world who are coming to us for advice. It's a vibrant area and one that we hope to grow strongly.

[TEXT: Birmingham Energy Institute Policy Commission, www.birmingham.ac.uk/doingcoldsmarter]

Ends