The House of Lords Science and Technology Committee is today
calling for evidence to inform its new inquiry into the use of
batteries and fuel cells for decarbonisation.
The inquiry and call
for evidence will focus on the role of battery
and fuel cell technologies in the UK’s ambition to reach net-zero
greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
These technologies will be crucial for
achieving UK climate ambitions, particularly for the land
transport sector where the number of battery-electric vehicles in
the UK will need to increase from around 5% of current sales to
100% by 2032. The Committee is also seeking evidence on the role
for battery and fuel cell technology in wider applications such
as on the electricity grids.
The call for evidence will be open until 29
March. Oral evidence sessions will start on Tuesday 9
March.
Focus areas for the inquiry and for
submissions:
-
How are battery and fuel cell technologies
currently contributing to decarbonisation in the
UK?
-
What advances have been made in battery and
fuel cell technologies in recent years? What further changes
can we expect?
-
What are the opportunities and challenges
associated with scaling up the manufacture of batteries and
fuel cells in the UK?
-
Is enough support in place to enable the
research, innovation and commercialisation of these
technologies in the UK?
-
Which countries are currently the leaders in
battery and/or fuel cell science and technology? In which areas
does the UK have a lead?
-
In what sectors could battery and fuel cell
technologies play a significant role?
-
How should battery and fuel cell technologies
be integrated into the wider UK energy
system?
-
What are the environmental impacts associated
with batteries and fuel cells?
-
What are the costs and benefits of using
battery and fuel cell technologies in their various
applications?
Commenting on the inquiry, , Committee Chair,
said:
“Battery and fuel cell technologies will be
important for achieving the 2050 Net Zero target. This must
include sizeable increases in the manufacture of batteries and
deployment of charging infrastructure. But there also must be
advances in the energy density, capacity and charging times of
battery systems, in parallel with further cost reduction. For
heavy transport such as HGVs and trains, batteries and hydrogen
fuel cells could also have an important role to play if some of
these technical challenges can be
overcome.
“As part of this important inquiry, the
Committee also seeks to understand the potential role for battery
and fuel cell technologies in other sectors (for example
aviation, agricultural machinery, heat production), and will
consider how these technologies will interact with the wider
energy system (for example, the use of batteries as energy
storage on the electricity grid).
“We therefore welcome submissions of
evidence on any of these areas to inform our
inquiry.”
