The growth of the world’s population and the fast economic development of many countries have lead to an ever increasing energy demand. At the same time conventional sources of energy, in particular fossil fuels and nuclear power, have acquired a bad reputation. The burning of fossil fuels has been linked with climate change and nuclear power carries, as the catastrophe at Fukushima has shown, a non-negligible risk. Therefore  solving the world’s energy problems requires a more efficient use of current resources as well as finding new, safe and reliable sources of energy.

In this Oxford at Saïd seminar, Nick Eyre talked about an increasing energy demand versus the desire for a low carbon future. His presentation was followed by two talks on two of the most promising alternatives to our current sources of energy: Steve Cowley presented on both the potential and the problems of fusion, and Henry Snaith about progress made in harnessing the sun’s energy on a large scale with low cost solar cells.