On 25th February 2026 at 7pm, the annual Clough Medal lecture took place at the Grant Institute, Kings Buildings Campus, University of Edinburgh and also held online. The audience for this years’ lecture was again sizable, both physically present and on-line. Proceedings for the evening were chaired by Graham Leslie (Chair of the Clough Committee, Edinburgh Geological Society).
Graham explained that the Clough Medal was established in 1935 and is given each year to a geologist whose original work has materially increased the knowledge of the geology of Scotland and/or the north of England, or one working in Scotland or the north of England who has significantly advanced the knowledge of any aspect of geology.
The medallist for 2025/26 was Professor Katriona Edlmann (Professor in Sustainable Energy, University of Edinburgh), who gave a lecture entitled “The Role of Scotland’s Geology in the Energy Transition”. Beforehand, she was presented with her medal by Professor Mark Wilkinson, EGS President.
Katriona (right) being presented with his Clough Medal 2025 by Mark, our President
Katriona used her lecture to cover the background to a Carbon based energy system, starting around the 12th Century with the monks in Midlothian through to 2002 when the Longannet deep mine in Fife closed. Running along side this in the 20th century were the Oil Shale and Shale Oil extractions from the Lower Carboniferous rocks up to the 1960s, especially around Bathgate in the Central Belt of Scotland.
In 1960, the first gas and then oil was discovered in the North Sea, initially in the Norwegian Sector but shortly after in UK waters as well. The oil fields being discovered mainly in the northern part of the North Sea and gas fields in the southern part.
There were so brief sojourns into shale gas, initially brought on by a resource evaluation undertaken by the British Geological Survey in 2014. The ‘false dawn’ was short lived, and led to a moratorium being put in place in Scotland in 2019.
Katriona then moved onto the main part of her lecture around the various options for future energy and the role that Scotland’s geology could play in each. The four areas covered were i) Carbon Capture and Underground Storage (CCUS), ii) Hydrogen Storage, ii) Geothermal and iv) Nuclear.
Under CCUS we heard about the re-purposing of the North Sea Oil and Gas fields where existing infrastructure will be re-used, mostly likely for the ACORN project in NE Scotland. There was also mention of the potential for basalt to hold CO2, although at this stage a more tentative technology.
The H2 storage is in part a response as to what to do with excess windfarm energy and its conversion to a source that is capable of being stored. The Salt Caverns within the P-T formations are already used and re-purposed gas fields may also have big potential in the near future. The potential for a complete off-shore industry using oil and gas platforms is a strong possibility.
Geothermal is something which has long been known about and with the real kick-off of the deep drilling programme in SW England has shown that it an work. In Scotland, we have both hot granite intrusions which may bring potential in parts of the NE around Aberdeen, and also the legacy mine workings under the Central Belt of Scotland and into Fife.
Nuclear has had a long history in Scotland, although currently only Torness in East Lothian is the only remaining operation station. Currently the Scottish Government has a moratorium on new power stations here.
A lively Q&A session followed with Katriona responding to questions on natural sources of hydrogen, the re-commencing interest in blending natural gas and hydrogen for domestic homes, salt carvern locations – why not in Scotland, and finally the use of tidal power resources. Katriona demonstrated a fantastic knowledge on all these sustainable energies, which she and her team of researchers from the University of Edinburgh had investigated for various governmental departments both in Scotland and the wider UK.
The vote of thanks was given by Mark Wilkinson who said that Katriona was a fantastic colleague to have alongside in Edinburgh and that she was forever turning up new ideas to be investigated. We look forward to hearing from her again soon, as the next chapter of Scotland (and the UK’s) energy transition story continues.
If Members weren’t able to attend physically or virtually, a recording is available on YouTube.
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