The funding boost of £28 million will be invested in smart systems, industrial energy reduction and offshore wind demonstrating our commitment to building a low carbon, low cost future. This forms part of the government’s commitment to double support for energy innovation, up to £400 million per year in 2021.
This financial support follows on the government’s vision to ensure the UK continues to be the global leader in science and research. The Industrial Strategy green paper recently released identified that the UK must do more to commercialise the world-class ideas and discoveries made in Britain, and put the UK and British companies at the forefront of innovation.
Minister for Climate Change and Industry Nick Hurd said: “Innovation in energy will play an important role to shape our low carbon future to rebuild an outdated energy system. That’s why we’ve increased our financial support, helping to create jobs and opportunities for people across the UK.”
Up to £9 million will be spent on “a competition to reduce the cost of energy storage, including electricity, thermal, and power-to-gas storage” and “up to £600,000 for feasibility studies for projects that can store energy on a large scale, for use when it’s needed.” This is in addition to up to £7.6 million for advancing demand-side response technologies and up to £9m for an “industrial energy efficiency accelerator”.
Up to £7.6 million will be available for advancing energy demand side response technologies that can help both private and public sector organisations reduce energy use in peak times.
To reduce the cost of energy for industry, the government will invest around £9 million in a competition for ‘industrial energy efficiency accelerator’. The competition would help to find new ways of improving the energy efficiency of UK industry, helping to develop industry-specific options for a low carbon future.
The Renewable Energy Association have responded to the news, saying that the funding is a welcome injection of capital and will support the UK’s rapidly growing energy storage industry ambition of becoming world-leading.
Commenting on the announcement, James Court, Head of Policy and External Affairs at the Renewable Energy Association said:
“This funding announcement by the Government is good news for the industry and will support competition, the deployment of emerging projects and the potential for the breakthrough of new products.” He continued, “The pace of change in the global energy storage industry is extraordinary, and there is significant research and deployment taking place in other great trading nations such as Germany, the United States and Japan. It is right that the Government should show coordinated action so that the UK can reap the benefits of becoming a world-leader in these technologies.”