Mark Garnier, Conservative MP for Wyre Forest, visited the University of Birmingham on Friday 5 February 2016 to see latest developments in energy research.

Professor Martin Freer, Director of the Birmingham Energy Institute, and Dr David Boardman, Head of Strategic Projects, Birmingham Energy Institute, welcomed Mr. Garnier to the Institute to discuss a variety of new projects relating to energy storage research and developments on campus.

Mark Garnier MP visits energy storage plant

Mr. Garnier was given a guided tour of the Birmingham Centre for Cryogenic Energy Storage, the first Centre in the UK to have a research facility for energy storage using cryogenic liquids, comprising new laboratories, state of the art equipment and a demonstration plant. His tours of the Centre concluded with a visit to the new energy storage pilot facility, a technology using liquid air to store and provide power, which could transform future energy systems.

Professor Freer also gave an overview of the Institute’s involvement in the Energy Research Accelerator (ERA), a founding partnership between six leading Midlands universities, to create new transformative and disruptive technologies that can be deployed in the Midlands growing manufacturing sectors creating new products for the UK and global market.

The University of Birmingham will accelerate its research in thermal energy including extending its work related to the Birmingham Centre for Cryogenic Energy Storage. It will catalyse new research activity with partners such as Cofely around areas of thermal energy storage and exploitation of waste heat.

Notes:

  • Mark Garnier has been the Conservative MP for Wyre Forest since 2010. He was reelected in 2015 when he extended his majority to 12,871. He is a member of the Treasury Select Committee, Co-Chair of the APPG on the Economy of the West Midlands, and Vice-Chair of the APPG on Space.
  • The Birmingham Energy Institute is a focal point for the University and its national and international partners to create change in the way we deliver, consume and think about energy. Co-ordinated research, education and the development of global partnerships is at the heart of the Birmingham Energy Institute vision, drawing on recognised centres of excellence in Energy Storage, Nuclear Energy, Fuel Cells and their Fuels, Railway and Automotive Systems and Energy Policy and Economics.
  • Energy Research Accelerator is based around a founding partnership between six leading UK Universities in the Midlands region – The Universities of Aston, Birmingham, Leicester, Loughborough, Nottingham and Warwick - and the British Geological Survey (BGS). Working with multiple industry partners, it will create new transformative and disruptive technologies that can be deployed in the Midlands’ growing manufacturing sectors creating new products for the UK and global market. It will provide new pathways to clean and resilient integrated energy systems that can be demonstrated and owned within city communities in the Midlands.