High winds: an engineer carries out essential maintenance work on turbines at a wind farm, one of the most established sources of renewable energy.Big oil companies are so last century. Shell is now a group of companies that includes Shell Renewables and its components Shell Solar and Shell WindEnergy. Lest any stone go unturned, the company is also on the trail of hydrogen, geothermal energy and biofuels. No one source of energy can meet the demands of the future.
The amount produced from renewable sources — particularly wind, sun and biofuels — is growing, but these are still costly. Fuel cells have promised more than they have yet delivered, and the infrastructure needs of hydrogen make that a long-term solution.
Although engineers and chemists of all kinds are needed, it is materials scientists who are in huge demand. Short of government funding, academia is relying on partnerships with industry — which, fortunately, has plenty of cash for training.
"The United States has shifted to long-range, high-risk research, whereas Europe is sticking with technologies in place today," says Rick Sellers, head of the International Energy Agency's Renewable Energy Unit.
The European Union (EU) aims to obtain 20% of its energy from renewable sources by 2020. Backed by development-friendly policies, this has created a robust wind and solar industry. The renewables community received 
810 million (US$1 billion) under the EU's Sixth Framework Programme for funding research and technology, which ends in 2006. They hope that the seventh, running till 2010, will double this amount.
The executive body, the European Commission (EC), tends to fund big industry-linked projects. "Research in industry is going to be more important in the coming years," says Arthouros Zervos, president of the European Renewable Energy Council in Brussels. Industry provided 34% of funding at the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems in Freiburg, Germany, last year. The institute is a good stepping-stone to an industry career, says its spokeswoman, Karin Schneider.
Revival of Energy
The United Kingdom is reviving government spending on energy research with a number of new initiatives, notably a £28-million (US$52-million) programme called Towards a Sustainable Energy Economy. A new body, the UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC), will coordinate efforts such as the Sustainable Power Generation and Supply project, or Supergen. Created by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), this will focus on four areas: marine, biomass and biofuels, hydrogen, and 'future network technologies' — taking account of possible trends such as widespread use of small-scale generators.
The UKERC will also support training programmes such as the Interdisciplinary Postgraduate Energy Research Studentships. Marie Curie fellowships, which provide European placements through the Framework programmes, are a staple source of postdoc funding. Other flexible training opportunities are also under way. In Britain, the EPSRC-funded Renewable Energy Flexible Training Programme provides paid full- and part-time studentships that mix web-based distance learning with internships. The new European master's degree in renewable energy, sponsored by the EU Renewable Energy Centres agency, is aimed at engineers who want to specialize in any renewable technologies, and is available at seven universities.
Although training is flourishing in Europe, it remains flat in the United States. In 2005, the US Department of Energy will spend just over $1 billion on renewables research. Most of that stays at the national labs, with some trickling down to support students at nearby universities. But funding at US universities is bleak, says Stephen Connors, research coordinator at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Laboratory for Energy and the Environment.
The bulk of US research is done at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado. This hosts some 45 postdocs, plus 30–40 undergraduate and graduate students on the Research Participant Program, says Beverly Maestas, director of human resources.
The Petroleum Research Fund, established by seven oil companies in 1944 and now administered by the American Chemical Society, offers postdoctoral alternative-energy fellowships. But these may soon fall victim to funding shortfalls, says programme manager Ron Siatkowski.
Industry also created the $225-million, ten-year Global Climate and Energy Project (GCEP) at Stanford University, arguably the largest university-based energy-research programme in the United States.
"The goal of the GCEP is to build a group of students that will be needed to transform the world's energy system," says director Lynn Orr. "If we guess now what the shape of energy systems will be in 2050, we are certain to get it wrong." Fundamental research at universities can investigate many ideas, he adds, that may or may not be developed at a large scale.
"We'd love it if there were a dozen more programmes like ours to interact and work with," says Orr — one reason why the GCEP is making partnerships with institutions such as the Energy Research Centre of the Netherlands, Delft University of Technology and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich.
The Link Foundation, which fosters education and innovation, is the only US non-governmental body without industry ties to offer PhD fellowships. It provides two-year scholarships worth $25,000 a year.
The Hard Cell for Hydrogen
One area in which industry has scaled back R&D is fuel cells. "Fuel-cell companies have had a tough time coming up with products to sell at a profit, causing the venture-capital community to view them as a high-risk investment," says Nick Lenssen, senior director of market-intelligence company Primen in Boulder, Colorado. Governments, though, are backing the technology. Iceland has the stated goal of becoming the world's first hydrogen economy (see 'Hot opportunities in Iceland').
The US Solid State Energy Conversion Alliance is halfway through a ten-year partnership of government, industry and academia to create a cost-effective mass-produced 3–10-kilowatt solid-oxide fuel cell.
"We've set up satellite centres at several universities," says Gary McVay, manager of the materials-science department at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richmond, Washington. This way, universities can build expertise and have students able to run the new energy-conversion devices. The big hurdle is materials research. They need people with expertise in materials science, metallurgy and ceramic engineering, says McVay.
The $9.4-million Texas Center for Superconductivity and Advanced Materials at the University of Houston is another partner, doing cutting-edge research. And the National Science Foundation has entered energy funding with an Industry/University Cooperative Research Center for Fuel Cells at the University of South Carolina, supporting 35 graduate students.
In Europe, the EC's Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technology Platform continues to fund basic research. Individual countries, such as Germany, have reduced previous levels of funding, so German research institutions rely more on the EC, says Robert Steinberger-Wilckens, a fuel-cell researcher at the Research Centre Jülich. But the Fuel Cell Education and Training Center in Ulm is a bright spot, currently setting up new training opportunities.
Others see great opportunities for fuel cells. New applications keep generating new companies, says Werner Tillmetz, a researcher at the Centre for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research in Baden-Württemberg, who hopes these will energize the industry.
Europe has been slow to invest in new companies, especially those promoting novel technology, says Phil Doran of venture-capital firm Core Technology Ventures in Schmitten, Germany. But he is convinced that fuel-cell technology in the EU merits investment. Perhaps his firm will 'strike oil' in a time when no one knows what will supply the energy of the future.
Web links
UKERC studentships
http://www.ukerc.ac.uk/2005/content/view/48/59
University of Newcastle upon Tyne's Reflex programme
http://www.ncl.ac.uk/postgraduate/taught/subjects/martech/courses/418
European Master's in renewable energy
http://www.eurec.be/REMaster_intro.htm
EU Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technology Platform
Global Climate and Energy Program at Stanford University
Fuel Cell Education and Training Center, Ulm
http://www.fuelcell-educationcenter.com
US DOE Research Participant Program
http://www.nrel.gov/hr/employment/rpp
US DOE National Renewable Energy Lab
Hot opportunities in Iceland
Iceland is already a leader in renewable energy usage, meeting 72% of its needs from its geothermal and hydropower resources. But transportation remains the obstacle to its goal to wean itself off fossil fuels. The transition has already begun with three fuel-cell buses (right) on the streets — and the world's first hydrogen filling station.
Future efforts are focused on meeting the need for an estimated 100,000 tonnes of hydrogen each year. Hydrogen storage remains the problem, says Ingolfur Thorbjornsson, a materials scientist at the Technological Institute of Iceland. He adds that Iceland has become the hot area for both Icelandic and foreign students to study renewables and the transition to hydrogen.
V.G.
