Professor Emile Greenhalgh led a showcase on structural power composites, highlighting their potential to influence everyday life.

Held at the Royal Academy of Engineering, Prince Philip House, the Structural Power Showcase brought together over 80 delegates from more than 40 industries. Attendees included representatives from major companies and organisations such as Airbus, Rolls Royce, BAE Systems, the US Air Force, and Hexcel.

The event featured prominent presentations from world-leading academics and poster presentations from distinguished researchers, aiming to introduce the latest advances in structural power composites, facilitate interaction between academia and industry and address the critical challenges and opportunities in this field.

Structural power composites represent a significant advancement, merging mechanical load performance with electrochemical energy storage – providing massless energy. These multifunctional materials eliminate the need for bulky batteries, presenting a novel approach to composite engineering. 

Such composites are set to impact everyday life, enabling innovations such as ultra-thin phones, streamlined car and plane designs, innovative drone designs and more! By integrating energy storage into load-bearing materials, this technology offers a fresh perspective in addressing the complex challenges of achieving net-zero transportation and combating the climate crisis.

Professor Emile Greenhalgh, Professor of Composite Materials, Royal Academy of Engineering Chair in Emerging Technologies and leading international figure in the field provided an overview of the emerging technology, industry adoption strategies and limitations: “Structural power composites offer a profoundly different approach to efficient engineering design, and are capturing the attention of academia, industry and the wider public. We felt it was timely to hold this event now so we could outline our vision of the future with this technology, but also be candid about the technical hurdles that confront us."

 Among the eminent speakers were:

• Professor Leif Asp, Chalmers University, Sweden
• Dr Sang Nguyen, Imperial College London
• Dr Natasha Shirshova, Durham University
• Dr Derrick Fam, A-Star Singapore
• Professor Dan Zenkert, Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Sweden
• Professor Faye Smith OBE, Avalon Consultancy Services
• Professor Milo Shaffer, Imperial College London
• Professor Peter Linde, German Aerospace Center (DLR)

The future of this technology will provide engineers with exciting opportunities to innovate through the emergence of structural materials that serve multiple functions. This advancement will lead to the development of novel and efficient products, including electric vehicles, portable electronics, and energy-efficient infrastructure.