Prince of Wales launches new UK centre for low-carbon aviation

The Prince of Wales yesterday (Tuesday) launched the National Centre for Propulsion and Power during a visit to the University of Cambridge. Based at the world famous Whittle Laboratory, the Centre aims to accelerate the development of decarbonisation technologies.

The Centre, which is due to open in 2022, will bring together researchers from across UK Universities with industry partners such as Rolls Royce, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Siemens and Dyson to accelerate the development of low-carbon technologies for the propulsion and power sectors.

Professor Rob Miller, Director of the Whittle Laboratory, said: “Our enemy is time. To achieve net-zero by 2050 we have focused on accelerating the technology development process itself. The results have been astonishing, with development times being reduced by a factor of 10 to 100.”

The Prince, who is patron of the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL), hosted a roundtable meeting of aviation and power generation business leaders, senior Government officials and researchers about how the UK can accelerate the development of decarbonisation technologies.

“We are at a pivotal moment, in terms of both Cambridge’s history of leading technology development in propulsion and power, and humanity’s need to decarbonise these sectors,” said Miller. “Fifty years ago, the Whittle Laboratory and its industrial partners faced the challenge of making air travel efficient and reliable. Now the new Whittle Laboratory and the National Centre will enable us to lead the way in making it green.”

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Image credit: Nic Marchant

Reproduced courtesy of the University of Cambridge

 



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