Energy and materials have a long-standing
and mutually enriching relationship. In this lecture I will show that materials
science offers unique possibilities to improve key properties of energy
technologies to achieve sustainability and to secure future energy supplies.
On the long term, materials science will help to promote the use of revolutionary
new energy resources, such as hydrogen fuel and nuclear fusion, and of
new energy storage technologies.
In the introduction, I will briefly outline
the correlation between energy resources, energy use and environmental
impacts (greenhouse gas effect). In the main part I will discuss some currently
used energy resources (coal, oil, natural gas, and nuclear fission) and
the material technology requirements for sustainability. Then I will move
to emerging energy resources, including wind and solar energy, and discuss
the materials challenges to make these resources viable. Finally, the materials
challenges of some long-term opportunities (nuclear fusion and hydrogen
fuel) and the requirements in materials research for electrical energy
storage will be outlined.
When we analyze the energy challenges of
today, it becomes clear that running out of resources does not emerge as
the major worry, as coal will last for about 150 years and oil and natural
gas for about 70 years to come. However, there is another worry, namely
increasing green house gas (carbon dioxide) emission that is becoming more
insidious and urgent. Today, energy production from any of the available
resources results in considerable carbon dioxide production. As a consequence,
we must also reduce our energy consumption, e.g. by cutting the energy
use in buildings, that accounts for 40% of primary energy use and 70% of
electricity use in developed countries. For this purpose we must apply
advanced materials for insulation, heating, cooling, and electricity supply
in buildings.
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