Briefing paper
The Potential Role for Biomass as a Long-Duration Store of Energy
07 October 2025
A delegation from UKERC was sent to Tsukuba, Japan, in September 2025 to participate in through Research and Development 20 (RD20). RD20 is an initiative for international research and development aiming to strengthen international collaboration and promote innovation by leading research institutes in G20 countries and regions that develop the world’s most advanced technologies for achieving carbon neutrality.
At the conference, a number of UKERC researchers spoke about our research. Dr Mike Colechin spoke on the potential role for biomass as a long-duration store of energy, Dr Callum MacIver spoke about the security of supply challenges for a weather dependent GB electricity system and the role for storage at scale, and Dr Aidan Rhodes spoke on enhancing electricity system resilience with AI.
The delegation was led by Prof Rob Gross, who participated in multilateral meetings at the conference, and Co-Director Prof Jamie Speirs was in attendance to secure the approval of the 2027 RD20 Summer School in Scotland.