TECHNICAL ADVISORY GROUP
The activities of the Renewable Energy Foundation are informed by the guidance by a Technical Advisory Group consisting of a wide variety of individuals in the energy sector who generously give their advice pro bono.
George Aggidis
George Aggidis is Senior Lecturer in Engineering at Lancaster University, and a former Director and Engineering Development Manager for Gilbert Gilkes & Gordon Ltd, Kendal. George was educated in Greece, USA and UK (University of Bradford & Cranfield University). He has experience of engineering aspects of nuclear power stations and has made wide-ranging contributions to research, design, and development in the field of fluid machinery and renewable energy. He is a Board Member of the Fluid Machinery Group of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers in London, and has recently acted as a renewable energy consultant to the Greek government. His aim at Lancaster University is to lead the development of a Centre of Excellence for Renewable Energy & Fluid Machinery.
Prof. Dr. Helmut Alt
Professor Alt is an electrical engineer, and since 1975 has been employed as chief departmental manager of the industrial customers of the electrical power, gas and water supplier RWE AG group, RWE Rhein-Ruhr AG. He is a leading expert on the German experience of wind turbines.
G. P. Van den Berg
G. P. van den Berg works at the Science Shop for Physics, University of Groningen, in the Netherlands, and is currently studying noise propagation around wind turbines at the Rhede Wind Park on the Dutch-German border. His recent article “Effects of the wind profile at night on wind turbine sound”, Journal of Sound and Vibration, 277 (2004), 955–970, has attracted considerable attention. At the 11th International Meeting on Low Frequency Noise and Vibration and its Control, Maastricht, The Netherlands, 30 August to 1 September 2004, he presented a paper asking “Do wind turbines produce significant low frequency sound levels?”. and arguing that there is low frequency noise from turbines, and that the significance of this is in the effect it has on audible noise.
Dr Paul Dupree
Paul Dupree is Reader in Biochemistry at the University of Cambridge. He studies plant growth and plant biomass with the aim of improving the quantity and quality for conversion to second generation ‘lignocellulosic’ biofuels. He is developing technologies to improve the processes of depolymerisation of the biomass. This will increase the quantity and decrease the cost of the sugars that are fermented to ethanol. He has advised the EU EPOBIO project on plant cell wall saccharification.
Professor Niall Ferguson
Professor Ferguson has published works on nineteenth and twentieth century European political and financial history, notably the prize-winning history of the Rothschilds bank, The World's Banker, and the best-selling history of the First World War, The Pity of War. His most recent book is The Cash Nexus: Money and Power in the Modern World, published by Penguin in February 2001. Although he continues to take a special interest in German history (especially the period 1870-1945), he has also published essays on counterfactual history. He has just completed a television history of the British Empire broadcast on Channel Four in January 2003. Professor Ferguson is currently Visiting Professor in Modern European History at Oxford and a fellow of Jesus College.
Professor John Ffowcs-Williams
For thirty years Shon Ffowcs-Williams was the Rank Professor of Engineering at Cambridge University and was Master of Emmanuel College for the six years leading up to retirement last year. His post-graduate career began at the National Physical Laboratory where he worked on sound generated by turbulence; from there he travelled to the United States to become involved in the question of how does flow and sound interact with moving surfaces? In 1964 he became Reader in mathematics at Imperial College, London and in 1969 was appointed the Rolls Royce Professor there. Professor Ffowcs-Williams has been recognised by the award of the Rayleigh Medal of the Institute of Acoustics, Gold Medal of the Royal Aeronautical Society, Silver Medal, Société Française d’Acoustique, the AIAA Aeroacoustics award, the CEAS Aeroacoustics award, the Per Bruel Gold Medal of the American Society of Mechanical Engineering and the Frank Whittle Medal of the Royal Academy of Engineering. He is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, Foreign Honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and Foreign Associate of the National Academy of Engineering in the United States.
Robert Freer
Robert Freer is a civil engineer who has worked mainly on energy and maritime projects and especially at the interface between research and practice. He has worked with consultants and client companies on the design and construction of nuclear,hydro-electric, diesel and gas turbine power stations in this country and overseas (including Dounreay, Winfrith, Kariba and Aswan) and on the development of a prototype wind energy generator and a wave energy device. He has presented technical papers on nuclear power, energy from waste, wind energy and the safety of dams to conferences in this country and in Denmark, Portugal, Lithuania, Serbia, St Petersburg and China. He has published about ten papers in technical journals and was awarded the George Stephenson Medal by the Institution of Civil Engineers in 2002 . He organised and led two DTI sponsored OSTEMS visits to a number of European countries and to Japan on dam safety and on energy from waste. He has served on a number of committees of the Institution of Civil Engineers and is at present a member of the ICE Council. He is now an independent consultant and his particular interest is in the realistic application of technology to meet national and local energy and power demands.
Sir Martin Holdgate
Sir Martin is currently President of the Zoological Society of London and a former Director General of IUCN - the World Conservation Union. Sir Martin first lectured at Manchester and Durham before moving to Cambridge in 1960. In 1966, he joined the Nature Conservancy as Deputy Director (Research), and, in 1970, he moved into Whitehall to head a unit co-ordinating Government action against pollution. He remained a Civil Servant until 1988, rising to become Chief Scientist and Deputy Secretary (Environment Protection) in the Department of the Environment.
Dr Mohammed Imbabi
Dr Imbabi is senior lecturer in engineering at the University of Aberdeen. He is also a founding director of the Environmental Building Partnership, a new (cleantech) company that is commercialising his pioneering research on the development of dynamic breathing building systems and the Energyflo(tm) cell. As well as being a member of the steering groups of several national and international professional organisations and learned societies that include the EPSRC Peer Review College and the Emirates Green Building Council, Dr Imbabi has authored more than 80 scientific papers. In May 2005, he organised and chaired the World Renewable Energy Congress in Scotland.
Professor Michael Laughton
Michael Laughton is Emeritus Professor of Electrical Engineering at the University of London. He has served as Specialist Advisor to parliamentary committees on alternative energy and energy efficiency and published on energy policy and electrical power systems. He is a member of the energy policy advisory committees of the Royal Academy of Engineering and the Royal Society.
Dr Richard Lindsay
Dr Lindsay is Head of Conservation and Principal Lecturer at the University of East London. His areas of scientific experience and expertise are in Peatland ecology and conservation at international, national and local scale, international and national conservation legislation, habitat survey and monitoring; vegetation classification and analysis (with particular reference to synusial phytosociology), remote sensing, landscape ecology, and geographic information systems. He is currently engaged in consultancy for Wetlands International and the Danish Environment Agency on the Central European Peatland Project Report; and for Plantlife on a baseline monitoring of Munsary Peatlands in Caithness.
Dr Carole Nakhle
Born in Lebanon, Dr. Carole Nakhle is an energy analyst based in London and specialising in geopolitics of oil and gas, energy policy and security, and international petroleum fiscal regimes. She is a Research Fellow in Energy at Surrey Energy Economics Centre (SEEC), at the University of Surrey – UK. She is also Special Parliamentary Adviser on Energy Issues and Middle Eastern Affairs to The Rt. Hon Lord Howell of Guildford, Deputy Leader of the Opposition, House of Lords, UK.
Dr. Nakhle is also a Senior Consultant to Middle East Consultants International Ltd, leading major studies on a series of integrated political risk/energy related reports. She is also a tax editor in Oil, Gas and Energy Law Intelligence (OGEL). She teaches economics, energy economics, business and management studies. She is also a visiting lecturer at the University of Westminster.
She has published papers and articles on petroleum fiscal regimes, energy security, sharing the oil wealth, and the role of women in the oil industry. Her work has appeared in various magazines and newspapers including the International Energy Law and Taxation Review and the International Herald Tribune as well as Arabic newspapers. She is trilingual, in spoken and written Arabic, French and English.
She has recently completed a book - Out of the Energy Labyrinth - that she co-authored with Lord Howell. The book is a compelling and illuminating study which shows how the search for safe global energy supplies can work in harness, instead of in conflict, with the fight against climate change. Energy security now means climate security later - that is the book's novel and challenging message. The book will be published in May 2007. Dr. Nakhle is currently working on her second book entitled Petroleum Taxation.
Professor Chris Perry
Chris Perry is a water resources economist, who originally trained as an engineer. He worked for the World Bank for over twenty years, primarily on large-scale irrigation projects in the middle east and, primarily, Asia; thereafter, he was head of research and Deputy Director General of the International Water Management Institute.
His particular interests are the economic analysis of water systems, productivity of water in irrigation, and the application of remote sensing to analysis of water use. He has published some twenty papers in various journals. Since 2000, he has worked as an independent consultant, serving on international panels of experts for the World Bank in the Aral Sea basin, and the Mekong, as a visiting professor at Cranfield University, as a member of the editorial board of Irrigation and Drainage, as well as various assignments for DFID, FAO, the Dutch and German governments, and the African Devopment Bank.
Dr Peter Randerson
Dr Peter Randerson, Lecturer, School of Biosciences, Cardiff University. Dr Randerson’s research interests focus on the ecological impacts of land use - effects of changing farming practice on upland vegetation and soil systems and the management of upland grasslands. High production willow coppice is under investigation as energy forestry, an alternative crop for farmers in the uplands of Wales. Together with Dr Fred Slater, Director of the University's Field Centre in Powys, mid-Wales, Peter has formed UWENFOR (University of Wales Energy Forestry) to promote wood-fuel production in marginal farmland areas. Constructed wetlands, planted with willow and acting as biofilters, are also seen as a cost-effective method of disposal of farm slurry and other effluent, avoiding the risk of pollution of watercourses. The spread of bracken in upland Wales and the involvement of aerial-deposited nitrogen is also being investigated.
Dr Randerson is also interested in the ecological impacts of habitat manipulation in estuaries - effects of engineering works (e.g. reclamation and barrage construction) on intertidal salt marsh habitat.
Guy de Selliers
Guy de Selliers started his career in 1977 at the World Bank. He then spent eight years on Wall Street with Lehman Brothers, as Senior Vice President, International Investment Banking. In 1990 he become one of the very first members of the transition team responsible for creating the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) which was inaugurated in April 1991. He was Vice Chairman of the Credit Committee and a member of the EBRD’s Executive Committee. After leaving EBRD in1997 he was Chief Executive of MC-BBL Eastern Holdings, an investment banking group with activities throughout Eastern and Central Europe. Upon the sale of MC-BBL he joined Robert Fleming and Co. Limited as Board member and Chairman, Eastern Europe.
He has acted as advisor to the European Commission on a number of issues. In 2002, he was appointed to lead a team of high level experts mandated by the Commission and the Russian Government to advise on measures to be taken to encourage the implementation of energy projects of strategic interest in the context of the EU/Russia Energy Dialogue.
He is Chairman of HB Advisers, a corporate finance advisory firm focused on the mining and metals industry created in partnership with Hatch Consulting, the leading engineering and management consulting firm in this sector. He is on the Board of Solvay S.A. (a leading European chemical and pharmaceutical group), Wimm Bill Dann (a New York Stock Exchange listed Russian company) and Norilsk Nickel (the largest mining company in the CIS). He is also a member of the International Advisory Board of Fortis. He is the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Partners in Hope, a UK based Charity supporting child welfare projects in Russia
Hugh Sharman
Hugh Sharman is an energy consultant. He was educated at Imperial College, London, where he read Civil Engineering. His early professional experience was gained in offshore construction, including five years in the Persian Gulf during the 1960s when he first concerned over the finite nature of fossil energy resources. He has also lived and worked in UK, France, the Caribbean and South America. He is owner and director of an independent energy consultancy, Incoteco (Denmark) ApS, specialised in the energy and environment sectors. He has lived in Denmark since 1986.
Most of Incoteco’s work is done for and with large energy companies, seeking innovative environmental solutions to practical problems. An example is its leading role in the formulation and development of the CO2 for EOR in the North Sea (CENS) project during 2001. If realised, this project will lead to the eventual sequestration of up to one billion tons CO2from power stations and factories around the North Sea rim and the recovery of over 5 billion barrels of incremental oil, that would otherwise remain forever in the ground.
During 2004, Incoteco (Denmark) ApS completed a wind-energy related study for the Danish Energy Agency that was also supported by a number of important Scandinavian energy companies. Its purpose was to find more effective uses for the large wind power surplus that is generated in West Denmark.
Mr Robert Skelton, CEng, FIChemE, MIMechE, FINucE
Bob Skelton is a member of the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Cambridge, and is currently working on improved processes for the production of bio-diesel.
Professor Drew Stevenson
Drew Stevenson is Professor of Urban Regeneration at the University of East London. He has wide experience in planning and governance.
Henry Thoresby
Henry Thoresby graduated from LSE in 1961 with a degree in Economics. He went on to serve in Papua New Guinea with the Australian Board of Missions where he was involved with various agricultural and education projects. On returning to England he qualified as a barrister and worked on The Third London Airport Enquiry, The Milton Keynes Master Plan and The Dartmoor Reservoir Scheme. Having joined the legal branch of the Department of the Environment he specialised in Environmental Protection and as DOE representative on The International Bar Association, The International Association of Nuclear Lawyers and various radiological working groups highlighted the importance of improving morale and discipline in the nuclear industry. Since leaving the Civil Service he has been a director of several companies including Cox & Kings Special Interest Holidays where he was reponsible for Botany and Wildlife. He continues to give legal advice [pro bono] to citizens groups and has been chairman/vice chairmen of LSE Environmental Initiatives Network since 1995. He is currently Chairman of the Noise Association Trust and Treasurer of Farms for Families.
Professor Paul L. Younger CEng, CGeol, CSci, FIMMM, FCIWEM, FIChemE
Paul Younger is HSBC Professor of Environmental Technologies and Geothermal Energy, based in the Institute for Research on Environment and Sustainability, University of Newcastle. A hydrogeologist and environmental engineer by background, Paul has acted as PI on three NERC projects and four EPSRC projects, amongst which were two LINK projects. He has also coordinated four EU Framework projects, on a range of applied hydrogeology topics. With more than £500K of support from HSBC Bank, he has recently launched a new programme of research on geothermal energy. Paul was the scientific leader of the Eastgate Geothermal Exploration project in 2004 (the first such project in the UK in 20 years), which was developed with funding from ONE North East and implemented by a technical team managed by PB Power Ltd. This work achieved national recognition as runner-up in the Times Higher Awards in November 2005. He has also undertaken a feasibility study for the harnessing of high-temperature geothermal energy in the Soufrière Hills volcanic zone of the Caribbean island of Montserrat, on behalf of the Montserrat Utilities Company. In relation to ground source heat systems, Paul was instrumental in the design and installation of the first deep aquifer open-loop ground source heat system in northern England, at the EcoCentre (South Tyneside Groundwork HQ) in 1997. This system has since worked every winter without a hitch. Currently, Paul is principal hydrogeological advisor to London Underground Limited on the ground-breaking ‘Cooling the Tube’ project, which proposes to use Chalk groundwater to chill the air in deep tube stations. Most recently, he has been appointed Energy and Environment R&D theme leader for the Newcastle ‘Science City’ initiative, which was announced by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Rt Hon Gordon Brown MP, in April 2005. The principal ground-source heat related element of the Science City initiative (the ‘GREAT Institute’, currently in detailed planning stages as a collaborative enterprise between Easington District Council and Newcastle University) recently won warm praise from Lord Judd during the recent House of Lords debate on the Climate Change and Sustainable Energy Bill (Hansard 682 (no 154), col. 1018, 25-5-2006). A prolific technical author, Paul has published more than 190 papers in the open literature. In February 2005, Newcastle University was awarded the Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Higher Education for a submission based on the work of the HERO research group led by Paul.
David White, FIChemE
David White is an energy consultant, and has held a range of senior management posts with Esso Petroleum Co. and the Exxon Group over a 30 year period. He spent the first 10 years in plant operations management at their UK refinery. He was one of few chemical engineers to switch from refining to marketing where he was responsible for a wide range of market developments in the UK. He held appointments with Esso Europe in London, Exxon Corporation in New York and Exxon Coal International. He took early retirement from Exxon Coal International in 1987 and created an energy consultancy practice. He has focused on technologies that offer solutions to emission problems from a range of fossil fuels and wastes by the application of energy conversion technologies. He monitors developments in EU and US environmental legislation along with data prepared by the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change on ways to ameliorate global warming.
He has directed courses on “Advanced Power Generation Technologies” and “Understanding the Refinery-Petrochemical Interface” for the College of Petroleum and Energy Studies, Oxford. Until recently, he chaired the Insitute of Chemical Engineers Gasification Conference Steering Committee, sits on the IChemE Energy Technology Subject Group Committee and represents IChemE on a number of Inter-Institutional Committees and the Parliamentary Group for Energy Studies. He also drafts many of the Institution's responses to government consultation papers on energy related issues.
Owen Yeatman
Owen is a life long farmer having studied agriculture at Kingston Maurward, Dorchester, and Riseholme, Lincolnshire. In addition to his farming activities, Owen is a past Chairman of and current director of Wessex Grain, a farmer owned business in the grain storage and marketing business. Through Wessex Grain, Owen has become an authority on the alternative use of crops as alternative energy sources, focusing upon the sustainable use of land for energy production. Owen has gained expertise in the road fuel sector with Ethanol from Wheat, and more recently, following a Nuffield Scholarship award to study Anaerobic Digestion (AD) and its role for UK farmers, expertise in AD and biogas. Following this study, Owen has established business’s in the AD sector and has established the UK’s first crops to biogas plant.