You are all invited to the following seminar:

Wednesday 27th February at 4pm in R2.41 (Ramphal Building)

Speaker: Gretchen Bakke (Humboldt University, Berlin)

Title: The Grid - A Grid's Eye View on Contemporary Energy Transitions

Abstract: In places with highly developed electrical infrastructure (grids) the integration of renewable means of making electricity has been surprisingly fraught. Even supporters of renewable power struggle as variably made electricity (when the wind blows, for example, but not when it doesn’t) and distributed generation (solar scattered all over the place) confound the logics of contemporary grids. Infrastructure in this transition is materially incalcitrant, while its resistance to change is often read as political or ideological. In this talk, Prof. Bakke details the infrastructural, cultural and business (structures and cultures) that make a thoroughgoing renewables revolution difficult to accomplish. She points to likely scenarios for strong, resilient, and smart electrified futures and then welcomes the elephant into the room, as energy transition 2.0—the total elimination of fossil fuels from energy systems—overwhelms and complicates the many successes of transition 1.0 (all those renewables) that has already come so far.

REFRESHMENTS AND BISCUITS SERVED THROUGHOUT.