Will the Lights Go Out? Energy Policy to 2020

Energy Policy Research Group event for the Festival of Ideas

The EPRG held a panel event on Thursday 11 March in Little Hall under the ESRC Festival of Social Science and the Cambridge Festival of Science. Open to all, an audience made up of academic, researchers and the general public were given a guide to myths and realities of energy policy. Members of the audience were able to use an interactive voting device to answer multiple choice questions and see whether they really knew the answers to questions such as “Is Britain running out of a secure gas supply?”

EPRG researchers David Newbery, Michael Pollitt, Bill Nuttall, Pierre Noël and Michael Grubb gave short presentations on a number of key issues surrounding energy policy from electricity and gas to nuclear and low-carbon. By asking the same question – “Do you think that Britain’s liberalised electricity and gas markets can deliver security of supply?” – at the beginning and at the end of the event,  the ad-hoc completely unrepresentative poll showed a change in voting patterns.

Members of the audience put questions to the panel on various topics including carbon pricing, carbon capture and storage (CSS), and cost of renewable technologies such as the viability of wind and tidal power. A drinks reception was held afterwards in the Faculty of Law for further discussion.

Download the presentation slides

Photos from the event