Leading economics and science experts in the UK have called for an international push akin to the Apollo space mission to kick-start the deployment of renewable energy storage technology, PV-Tech reported.

Speaking at an event at the UK’s House of Lords, Sir David King, the former UK chief scientific advisor, Lord Richard Layard, programme director at the London School of Economics, and Mark Maslin, professor of climatology at University College London, called for a campaign to secure international renewable energy storage funding.

The event, ‘Running out of time – climate change’, hosted speakers and debate on resolutions to international energy issues.

It was intended to explore solutions to energy problems ahead of the international climate change talks in Paris next year.

King, now a climate change advisor to the UK’s foreign secretary William Hague, highlighted how storage had become an “obstacle” to the full exploitation of renewable energy sources.

Layard urged governments to back initial storage technology funding, pointing out that most significant recent technological innovations were government funded, “not from the private sector”.

King cited the effect of the UK’s solar feed-in tariff as a “miracle” for PV prices.

He pointed out the opposite lack of incentive for crucial energy storage investment.

King claimed 100 per cent of Italy’s current fiscal deficit is caused by soaring oil prices, and 80 per cent of the UK’s.

Maslin said fossil fuels had “revolutionised society, but now fossil fuels are polluting the planet”.