The UK’s Nuclear Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (NAMRC) is a partnership between the University of Sheffield and The University of Manchester, with Rolls-Royce, Areva, Westinghouse, Sheffield Forgemasters and Tata Steel as industrial partners.
I am supportive of nuclear power – not Hinkley Point style large-scale reactors, but what are referred to as a Small Modular Reactor (SMR). This concept has a lot going for it in terms of cost in that it can be factory manufactured, easily transported and uses a modular configuration.
Working with NAMRC, Rolls-Royce is developing a modular reactor capable of providing 220–440MWe dependent on the configuration being used.
It’s proposed to use proven technology with a “high degree of commercial or standardised components”. In fact Rolls-Royce claims over 75% of the design will be modular which it believes will open up opportunities for “volume manufacturing” by UK companies.
As an aside this isn’t actually mentioned in Scottish Enterprise’s report on Oil & Gas Diversification Opportunities – although it certainly should be.
However, it does seem that as far as Rolls-Royce and the NAMRC are concerned, they don’t actually see Scotland or any of its companies or research organisations including the universities as potential partners or suppliers.
The Rolls-Royce brochure on its Small Modular Reactor project is interesting and well designed as it conveniently provides a map of where the research organisations it intends working with are based.
This list includes the Welding Institute, the Manufacturing Technology Centre, the University of Birmingham, the University of Cambridge, the University of Derby, and Imperial College London, the University of Manchester, the University of Oxford, the University of Sheffield and the University of Surrey.
It boasts about “bringing together Britain’s best brains”. Sadly for Scotland, none of those research organisations are based here and in fact none of them are based North of Yorkshire. So it seems this is a programme in which Scotland may well not have a chance to be included in, even if it wanted to be.
Now the question is whether we should be particularly surprised by this. Well the answer to that is “probably not”.
I have written before that I really don’t rate Scottish universities when it comes to low carbon technology development. There are some very high-quality people in our universities but I think they suffer from a lack of direction and support.
Worse, although many may well be skilled researchers, one has to ask what industrial benefit they provide.
I’m sorry but I’m not one of those who believe we should fund research simply to improve our knowledge. In today’s world, particularly now that we are being dragged out of the EU Single Market, we need to be able to compete with other countries and we’re not.
Here’s the perfect example. Most people who seem to understand what they’re talking about agree that hydrogen in one form or another will grow in use for transport and other applications including heat, cooking and so on.
At the annual rich people’s tea party in Davos, 13 global industry leaders in energy, transport and industry launched a “global initiative to voice a united vision and long-term ambition for hydrogen to foster the energy transition”.
The Hydrogen Council, as it will be called, will promote the use of hydrogen to “help meet climate goals”.
As the CEO of the German company Linde said: “Thanks to the substantial progress in hydrogen and fuel-cell technologies in recent years, the much-quoted ‘energy carrier of the future’ has finally become available. It is now up to us – the industry, policy-makers and customers – to make full use of the potential these climate-friendly technologies can offer.”
The companies involved are Air Liquide, Alstom, Anglo American, BMW GROUP, Daimler, ENGIE, Honda, Hyundai, Kawasaki, Royal Dutch Shell, The Linde Group, Total and Toyota.
None of them are from the UK of course, although ITM Power of Sheffield which manufactures electrolysers and refuellers may benefit.
Scottish companies? Best not to ask.
So, no involvement in Small Modular Reactor technology development and minimal involvement in the hydrogen sector.
Yet, these are just two of the potentially huge low-carbon sectors of the future along with things such as carbon dioxide conversion, which incidentally is now gaining considerable ground even in countries such as India in which a company has developed a process to turn CO2 into baking soda!
Of course, researchers in the US have been developing this type of technology for a while and can now create a range of useful products from CO2 while in Brexit land we cling to the idea of stuffing it all in the ground.
Pity really, given we have a crop of very good chemistry researchers in Scotland. We just don’t seem to encourage them or inspire them to do this sort of stuff.
Of course, as both JC and I have pointed
out before, these are not the only sectors
Scotland isn’t involved in industrially but should be.
All that said, I don’t much like the Rolls-Royce SMR concept, because it looks as if it’s not salt-based. I prefer the Moltex Energy concept based on molten salt because it’s intrinsically safe.
So, what’s the connection between SMRs and hydrogen?
Well, lots of SMRs can power lots of electrolysers to produce lots of hydrogen as well as feeding a local grid. They’re also exportable, of course. Oh and when we have the ability to produce hydrogen in bulk that enables us to use it in ways I described earlier.
I recently discussed the idea of building fuel cell vehicles in Scotland with an automotive engineer friend. He said it would take a month or two to put together a team to do that. I believe him. The nature of the technology makes it entirely feasible.
Meanwhile, the Scottish Government has just published its draft climate change plan. It’s rightly very ambitious and it’s highly dependent on low carbon technologies.
Although laced with references to opportunities for innovation it doesn’t actually set out a strategy as to how this might happen. It needs to do that and say expressly how any innovation programme would be both funded and just as importantly, driven forward.
There is a serious need for clarity; not the usual British fudging that gets everyone nowhere.
Scotland does, of course, have brains
we just don’t make enough use of them and when I say “we” I mean the country and its industry.
It’s time we did, isn’t it?