Community Energy Literature Review

  An imagined speech, the Zero-Carbon World Oration for 2050, was used by Wiseman (2017) as a vehicle “to describe one plausible narrative of the way in which a rapid energy transition might unfold, informed by a range of modelling and scenario studies”. The writer takes us through a series of supposed milestones between 2020 and 2050, including the growth of renewables, energy storage and smart grids; the attainment of carbon neutrality by leading cities; the phasing out of internal combustion engines and the use of renewable fuels and electrification for long distance transport; the demise of coal and oil; the expansion of carbon pricing; the use of emissions-free steel and concrete; and the mobilization of funds to address the impact of climate change and energy transition on the most vulnerable populations. Wiseman’s fictitious orator describes a world that in 2050 has escaped total climate disaster, and is on track to achieve a net zero carbon economy by 2060, but nevertheles

  In his book on the strategy needed to enable the UK to address the threat from climate change, Chris Goodall mentions hydrogen more than a hundred times (Goodall, 2020). Describing the connection between renewable energy and hydrogen, he cites “ the great British biologist J.B.S. Haldane, who foresaw the importance of renewable electricity combined with hydrogen as the basis of the entire energy system as early as 1923”. Here is part of Haldane’s lecture, given in Cambridge:   “Personally, I think that … the power question in England may be solved somewhat as follows: The country will be covered with rows of metallic windmills working electric motors which in their turn supply current at a very high voltage to great electric mains. At suitable distances, there will be great power stations where during windy weather the surplus power will be used for the electrolytic decomposition of water into oxygen and hydrogen. These gasses will be … stored in … reservoirs, probably sunk in th