There’s a lot of talk about getting to net zero. Sometimes it sounds straightforward – just change to electric vehicles and heatpumps and everything will be fine. However if it’s so easy, why is it taking so long? And why are power blackouts being talked about?

This talk will show that electrifying the UK is fraught with problems and could bring more problems than it solves. We will show that there is another way, that the UK (and especially Wales) is well placed to capitalise … but and that we need to move fast!

Speaker biography

Averil Macdonald is Emeritus Professor at the University of Reading.

Averil was awarded the international Bragg Medal and Prize (1999) by the Institute of Physics, London, the accolade of Woman of Outstanding Achievement in Science (2007) in recognition of her work in Science Communication, the prestigious Plastics Industry Award for Personal Contribution to the Industry (2007), Honorary Doctorates by the University of York (2010) and Kingston University (2015) and an OBE in the Birthday Honours list 2015 for services to women in science.

From 2019-2021 Averil was Master of the Worshipful Company of Fuellers in the City of London working alongside HRH Prince Edward the Earl of Wessex as Royal Master. Throughout her time as she championed future energy solutions to decarbonise the UK, with a particular emphasis on using hydrogen to decarbonise the UK’s heating systems and to make decarbonised HGVs a reality

Alun Vaughan is Emeritus Professor a University of Southampton.

He was a founding director of Southampton Dielectric Consultants Ltd, is currently a director of ECS Partners Ltd and also acts as an independent consultant, having undertaken technical and expert witness work on behalf of major organisation in UK, Europe and the Far East, notably, in connection with the use of polymeric material in power system applications. He is currently a Fellow of the Institute of Physics and, in 2016, delivered the IEEE Dielectric and Electrical Insulation Society’s Eric O. Forster Memorial Lecture, an award made in recognition of “world-leading” research in the area of dielectrics.

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