Taming the sun: innovations to harness solar energy and power the planet (Oxford Martin School)
Solar energy, once a niche application for a limited market, has become the cheapest and fastest-growing power source on earth. What’s more, its potential is nearly limitless – every hour the sun beams down more energy than the world uses in a year. But Varun Sivaram, Fellow for science and technology at the Council on Foreign Relations, former Oxford researcher, and author of a new book, Taming the Sun, warns that the world is not yet equipped to harness erratic sunshine to meet most of its energy needs. And if solar’s current surge peters out, prospects for replacing fossil fuels and averting catastrophic climate change will dim.

Innovation can brighten those prospects, Sivaram will argue. Financial innovation is already enticing deep-pocketed investors to fund solar projects around the world, from the sunniest deserts to the poorest villages. Technological innovation could replace today’s solar panels with coatings as cheap as paint and employ artificial photosynthesis to store intermittent sunshine as convenient fuels. And systemic innovation could add flexibility to the world’s power grids and other energy systems so they can dependably channel the sun’s unreliable energy. Unleashing all this innovation will require visionary public policy: funding researchers developing next-generation solar technologies, refashioning energy systems and economic markets, and putting together a diverse clean energy portfolio.
Date: 12 June 2018, 17:00 (Tuesday, 8th week, Trinity 2018)
Venue: Oxford Martin School, 34 Broad Street OX1 3BD
Venue Details: Lecture Theatre, Oxford Martin School 34 Broad Street (corner of Holywell and Catte Streets) Oxford OX1 3BD
Speaker: Varun Sivaram (Philip D. Reed Fellow for Science and Technology at the Council on Foreign Relations, Georgetown University)
Organising department: Oxford Martin School
Organiser: Anne L Ryan (Oxford Energy Coordinator)
Organiser contact email address: info@oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk
Host: Professor Nick Eyre (University of Oxford)
Part of: Energy Colloquia Series
Booking required?: Required
Booking url: https://www.oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk/event/2567
Audience: Public
Editor: Anne Ryan