Paul Younger on energy for the future

The Life Scientific

BBC

Technology, Personal Journals, Society & Culture, Science

4.6 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 17 November 2015

⏱️ 28 minutes

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Summary

Paul Younger, Rankine Professor of Energy Engineering at the University of Glasgow, in conversation with Jim al-Khalili in front of an audience at the Free Thinking Festival at Sage Gateshead. Paul Younger's future career was inspired by the hills around him near the River Tyne. From a background in geology he now carries out research into, as he says, "keeping the lights on and keeping homes and businesses warm whilst de-carbonising our energy systems." He spent many years at the University of Newcastle, where he built up his expertise in the relationship between water and rocks. He has advised on how to clean up the highly polluted water left in mines after they are closed - from the North East to Bolivia. His knowledge of the rocks beneath our feet has lead him to investigating how we might use more geothermal energy in the future. Paul Younger tells Jim al-Khalili about the experimental holes that have been drilled in County Durham and central Newcastle, and explains why these projects are now mothballed. And Professor Younger also talks about his research into other unconventional ways of generating energy - such as turning coal deep underground into gas.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to the podcast of the Life Scientific.
0:03.6	First broadcast on BBC Radio 4.
0:06.3	I'm Jim Alleili and my mission is to interview
0:09.2	the most fascinating and important scientists alive today and to find out what makes them tick.
0:15.0	Today we're at the Freethinking festival at Sage Gateshead
0:19.0	on the South Bank of the River Tyne,
0:21.0	and my guest is a man who's brought up not far from here in a shipyard
0:24.8	house next to the time. Paul Younger's career was inspired by the hills around him.
0:30.5	From a background in geology, he's now Rankin professor of energy engineering at the University of Glasgow,
0:36.0	where he carries out research into, as he says, keeping the lights on and keeping homes and businesses warm whilst decarbonizing our energy system. and
0:45.0	keeping homes and businesses warm whilst decarbonizing our energy systems. But what's fascinating is that he's tearing up the rule book by finding new ways of producing energy.
0:51.0	Paul Younger spent many years at Newcastle University
0:54.6	where he built up his expertise in the relationship between water and rocks.
0:59.6	He's advised both private and public organizations around the world on what happens to mines when
1:05.0	they're closed, from the northeast of England to Bolivia.
1:09.4	His knowledge of the rocks beneath our feet has also led him to work on how we can use more geothermal
1:14.4	energy in the future.
1:16.1	Paul Younger, welcome to the Life Scientific.
1:18.1	Thanks, Jim.
1:19.8	Let me jump in with an important question.
1:22.2	How urgent is our need to find new sources of energy?
1:25.4	Well it's very urgent and at several levels really. You know we've got the big picture of
	...

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