Physics undergraduates win energy challenge
12 May 08
Tackling Britain’s impending energy gap in 2025 requires creative solutions, and Oxford undergraduates have come up with an award-winning one.
Third-year physicists Abigail Schlageter (St Hilda’s), Eve Browning (Jesus), Felix Palmer (Oriel), and Niel Bowerman (Keble) emerged winners at the npower Energy Challenge 2008, beating competition from Cardiff University, Case MBA School, Imperial College, and Birmingham, Exeter and Cambridge Universities.
Given just eight minutes to present a strategy to tackle Britain’s energy gap, the Oxford physicists settled on a simple key message: reduce energy consumption in the UK by 15 per cent by 2025.
Hearing the npower board complimenting our ideas and considering their implementation was arguably the greatest reward of the challenge
What made their strategy stand out above all others was their novel ‘smart savers pricing policy’, which rewards consumers who manage to use less energy in a straightforward way. First, a reasonable level for normal energy consumption is set. Consumers who use energy beyond this boundary are then penalised by having to pay a more expensive rate, while those remaining below the boundary level will be rewarded with cheaper rates. By setting the rates at the correct levels, energy companies and consumers would save money while using less energy.
Niel Bowerman said: ‘I believe that energy will be one of the defining issues of the 21st century. The npower Energy Challenge provided us with the opportunity to tackle these issues head-on, while giving us the ear of some of the most influential people in the country. Hearing the npower board complimenting our ideas and considering their implementation was arguably the greatest reward of the challenge.’
Felix Palmer added: ‘For me the reason for taking part was to see if rather than just bemoan government policy I could help come up with a plan of action that they should take. The greatest reward would be to see some of the ideas put into action to see if they would work in the real world.’
The winners collected £1,250 each and the Oxford Physics department received £5,000, which it will use to promote energy science. Niel is intending to use his prize money to go to Japan for the G8 summit, to work with the G8 Research Group reporting on the event and providing information to the media on whether or not the G8 nations have fulfilled their commitments relating to climate change. The group is also hoping to meet Malcolm Wicks, the UK’s Energy minister, to present their idea directly to him.