Transforming our energy system: opportunities and challenges in the use of renewables
Thursday 26th November 2026 7.30pm for 8pm start.
Speaker: Professor Keith Bell, Chair of Future Power Systems at the University of Strathclyde
Location: Cairns Church of Scotland, 11 Buchanan St, Milngavie, Glasgow G62 8AW
The Thinking Allowed Team are delighted to invite you to our next session.
Relative to how things were in 1990, the UK has reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by more than any other large, industrialised nation. That has primarily been thanks to the use of renewable electricity. However, we have further to go in decarbonising energy and many challenges still to meet if we’re to reap the benefits of cleaner air and reduced dependency on fossil fuels while making our contributions to limiting global warming. In this talk, Keith will explain why, today, we’re not using all the wind energy that’s available and why the price of electricity is still largely set by the price of gas. He will also discuss what
we need to do transform our use of energy for heating and transport, and talk about what a ‘Dunkelflaute’ is and why it presents some particular problems.
Biography
Keith Bell holds the Scottish Power Chair in Future Power Systems at the University of Strathclyde. Keith is a co-Director of the UK Energy Research Centre and, in April 2019, became a member of the UK’s Climate Change Committee. A Chartered Engineer and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, he has advised the Scottish, UK and Irish governments and Ofgem on electrical energy and power systems issues and is active in CIGRE, the International Council of Large Electric Systems. He is also on the Executive Committee of the IET Power Academy, an initiative to encourage graduate engineers into the power and energy sector. He is a member of Ofgem’s climate resilience expert panel and of the National Energy System Operator’s Engineering Advisory Council.
