Category: 0 Reviewed

• UK to lead global challenge to reduce the cost of innovative new carbon capture technology
• UK strategy to reduce costs and capture global export opportunities
• £21.5 million of UK funding for ground-breaking projects to capture CO2 emissions

Energy Minister Claire Perry has today (Wednesday 23 May) announced the UK is to lead an international challenge with Saudi Arabia and Mexico to remove carbon from emissions. It will be a unique opportunity to enable an up and coming technology to scale up by working together with other countries.

It is one of 7 Mission Innovation challenges announced in 2015 at COP21 with the UK setting out £21.5 million of funding for innovative new Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage (CCUS) technologies.

The aim of the funding is to invest in innovation that could reduce the cost of the technology by supporting its development so that CCUS can become commercially viable at scale.

CCUS is where carbon from power stations or industry is captured then either used for industrial applications or transported to be stored safely underground, reducing pollution from the air we breathe.

While there are currently 22 plants in operation or construction, the UK has the opportunity to become a world leader in this field.

There is a global consensus that carbon capture will be critical in meeting the aims of the Paris Agreement and supporting clean growth. This technology can capture carbon dioxide emissions from industry or power generation as well as support low carbon hydrogen production.

Energy and Clean Growth Minister, Claire Perry said:

My ambition is for the UK to become a global technology leader in carbon capture, working with international partners to reduce its costs. As the UK has led the debate globally on tackling climate change and pioneering clean growth, we are leading this global challenge with an initial £21.5 million investment in CCUS innovation – a key part of our modern Industrial Strategy.

UK companies are already involved in some of the most innovative CCUS projects internationally, and just this week a ground-breaking negative emissions bio-energy project at Drax Power Station in Yorkshire was launched.

The Clean Growth Strategy sets out the new Government approach to CCUS in the UK, highlighting the important role of innovation in supporting cost reduction. Government has committed to spend up to £162 million to improve CCUS and industrial energy efficiency.

As well as the potential to help us reduce our emissions in industries through the manufacture of concrete, chemicals, steel, there are also opportunities to maximise economic opportunities for the UK through new technologies and the supply chain.

Government is working with industry to adopt CCUS in the UK by reducing its costs and capturing the export opportunities, and a CCUS Cost Challenge Taskforce will report to government in July this year. Energy Minister Claire Perry will host an international CCUS summit with the International Energy Agency, in Edinburgh later this year.

The UK’s modern Industrial Strategy is a long-term plan to build a Britain fit for the future through a stronger, fairer economy. Through this we will help businesses to create better, higher-paying jobs – setting a path for Britain to lead in the high-tech, highly-skilled industries of the future.

As part of this, the modern Industrial Strategy sets out 4 Grand Challenges, including Clean Growth – Ensuring the UK is at the forefront of innovation and maximising the advantages for UK industry in the global shift to clean growth.

Notes to editors

1. The Carbon Capture Challenge is one of 7 Mission Innovation challenges announced in 2015 at COP21. The Carbon Capture Challenge is focused on addressing the innovation challenges CCUS presents, for example enhancing innovation for carbon capture technologies to reduce the cost of the technology and support the technology’s development.
2. A call for CCUS innovation will offer £15 million of grant funding for projects up to 28 months and will be available to 31 March 2021. BEIS will consider grants of up to £5 million for a single project. Both projects that are UK-led or that involve collaboration with an international partner will be considered.
3. BEIS and UKRI has committed £6.5 million to the 2nd call of the Accelerating Carbon Technologies (ACT) Research Programme. This research and development programme is made up of 10 European countries (5 of which are involved in the CCUS Mission Innovation Challenge – Norway, The Netherlands, Germany, France and UK). The overall grant available from all the countries involved amounts to approximately €25 million.
4. Further information is available on how to apply for funding and about the programmes.

The development of a network of the best UK research and expertise in energy from right across the research disciplines, completes the launch of the £102.5 million prospering from the energy revolution challenge, which is part of the government’s modern Industrial Strategy.

The energy revolution research consortium will deliver a suite of strategic research projects that address industry- led challenges in the development of local, investable, consumer-centred energy approaches to create prosperous clean energy communities.

Chief Executive of UK Research and Innovation, Professor Sir Mark Walport said:

Clean and affordable energy is one of the biggest challenges of the 21st century and one that affects us all.

The energy revolution challenge will address this societal and environmental need by unlocking the potential of world-class research and innovation.

It will create the new commercial solutions that benefit consumers through reduced bills, that drive economic growth through new businesses and high-value jobs, and do this at a reduced environmental cost.

Through the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund, we are tackling major industrial and societal challenges and supporting the UK to become an even stronger knowledge-driven economy.

The research consortium competition builds on a series of announcements in recent weeks that detail how the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund is developing cutting-edge capabilities in local systems that deliver cleaner, cheaper and more resilient energy for consumers; which include:

Smart local energy systems demonstrators and designs

The fast-track creation of up to 3 practical local energy systems demonstrators and a range of whole-system design studies, which could be ready for new consumer energy systems in the 2020s.

The practical demonstrators will build supply chain capabilities, deliver positive changes for energy consumers, and inform future projects. The design studies will create a pipeline of investable projects for the future.

Innovation accelerator fund

The innovation accelerator fund will develop and commercialise smart local energy system products and services, and help UK business and researchers engage with the best international innovation opportunities.

Research and integration services

A world-leading, inter-disciplinary research programme will be commissioned to work alongside the Energy Systems Catapult. The programme will provide coordination and technical support to demonstration and design projects.

Rob Saunders, Interim Challenge Director, Prospering from the Energy Revolution, said:

This is an exciting time for energy innovations. The convergence of new technologies with artificial intelligence, big data, and the internet of things promises a new energy future.

This future will be one of lower carbon and more efficient energy supply, distribution and storage, giving consumers more control. This energy revolution – a crucial part of the Industrial Strategy – has the potential to unlock investment, create high-quality jobs all over the country and grow companies capable of exporting.

The prospering from the energy revolution challenge will bring together businesses working with the best research and expertise to transform the way energy is delivered and used.

Together they will develop and demonstrate new approaches to provide cleaner, cheaper and more resilient energy services. This includes providing energy in ways that consumers want by linking low-carbon power, heating and transport systems with energy storage and advanced IT to create intelligent, local energy systems and services.

Further funding to make up the rest of the challenge will be announced in future financial years.

The funding will be awarded competitively by UK Research and Innovation, the new organisation that brings together the UK research councils, Innovate UK and Research England into a single organisation to create the best environment for research and innovation to flourish.

Notes for editors

For more information, contact pressoffice@innovateuk.ukri.org or 07766 901150

UK Research and Innovation launches Energy Revolution Research Consortium call

In collaboration with the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and the Knowledge Transfer Network, UK Research and Innovation is hosting a consortium-building workshop in Birmingham on 9 and 10 July 2018.

More details here: https://epsrc.ukri.org/newsevents/news/energyrevolutionresearchconsortium/

About the prospering from the energy revolution challenge

• smart systems can link energy supply, storage, and demand patterns across power, heating and transport to dramatically improve efficiency
• new smart energy systems will be able to take advantage of some of the $2 trillion a year that will be invested in global energy infrastructure over the next decades
• the scope of this challenge is to provide solutions that integrate multiple technologies, infrastructures and market, finance and societal systems in real-world settings to create investable and scale-able models for the future
• this will create new high-value local jobs across the country, and export business associated with design, testing, finance, installation, and operation of new energy products, systems and services
• the novel approach in this programme is to undertake whole-system approaches at scale in real-world settings. Government support is needed to coordinate a very complex stakeholder and technology landscape
• the winning projects will bring together the latest low carbon power, transport and heating, with storage and smart systems using advanced IT to create intelligent local energy systems and services that cut bills, improve system efficiency, reduce the need for expensive new infrastructure and create high-value local jobs

About the Industrial Strategy

• the Industrial Strategy sets out the government’s plan to help businesses create better, higher-paying jobs with investment in the skills, industries and infrastructure of the future
• the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund is designed to ensure that research and innovation takes centre stage in the Industrial Strategy, bringing together the UK’s world-leading research with business to meet the major industrial and societal challenges of our time

About UK Research and Innovation

• operating across the whole of the UK with a combined budget of more than £6 billion, UK Research and Innovation brings together the 7 Research Councils, Innovate UK and Research England
• we are an independent organisation with a strong voice for research and innovation, both to government and internationally, we are supported and challenged by an independent chair and board
• we are principally funded through the science budget by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

• government is carrying out a review of how to help businesses embrace new technology and latest management techniques to push up wages and profits
• the Business Productivity Review forms part of the government’s modern Industrial Strategy
• the review will help better understand the factors affecting the productivity of UK business in a bid to unlock £100 billion of untapped benefit to our economy

In a bid to increase productivity and with it the nation’s wages and profits, Chancellor Philip Hammond yesterday (Tuesday 22 May) announced a Call for Evidence on the UK’s productivity, seeking views on how to boost the performance of Britain’s businesses.

The Business Productivity Review will focus on how firms across the country can take advantage of leading technologies, management practices and business support services. Increasing productivity leads to a long-term boost to workers’ wages and businesses’ profits – a key part of the government’s modern Industrial Strategy.

Through the Industrial Strategy, the government is building upon the UK’s position as one of the best places in the world to start and grown a business. Around 1,100 businesses start every day in Britain. However, UK productivity is below the average for the rest of the G7 advanced economies.

Research from the CBI suggests that by encouraging more businesses to adopt the best tried and tested technologies available – such as cloud computing, mobile technology and e-purchasing – the UK economy could receive a £100 billion boost and see a 5% reduction in income inequality.

Acknowledging the UK’s significant economic strengths, the Chancellor told the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) today that we can do more to make the most of our untapped potential.

Business Secretary Greg Clark said:

For centuries Britain has been a nation of discoveries, but these ideas haven’t always been commercialised in the UK and new ideas applied in practice.

Now our modern Industrial Strategy is ensuring that firms across the UK can take advantage of leading technologies and management practices, potentially adding £100 billion to the economy and boosting people’s earning power right across the country.

The Chancellor also announced £20 million government investment for the Made Smarter pilot scheme aimed at boosting productivity and growth in the north west.

The industry-led pilot will help up to 3,000 small and medium-sized manufacturers become more competitive through greater use of digital technology in the manufacturing process and in supply chains.

Made Smarter is another way the government is building a Northern Powerhouse and is the first initiative of the Made Smarter Commission that was launched by the Business Secretary in February as part of the Industrial Strategy following Juergen Maier’s independent review of digital technology in the UK manufacturing sector.

The Business Productivity Review Call for Evidence is now open until 4 July 2018 and the government encourages businesses, trade associations and other interested parties to contribute their views to it.

Notes for editors

1. Respond to the call for evidence.
2. To address the UK’s productivity challenge, the government’s Industrial Strategy focuses on the 5 foundations of productivity: ideas, people, infrastructure, business environment and place. As part of our approach to improving the business environment, the Industrial Strategy white paper announced that the government would launch a review of the actions that could be most effective in improving the productivity and growth of small and medium-sized businesses.
3. Productivity is frequently defined as output per worker, or alternatively output per hour worked.
4. The UK has a strong business environment upon which we can build:

• 1,100 businesses start every day in Britain and we are ranked as one of the best places in the world to start and grow a business
• we have more than 31,000 Scale Up businesses
• between 2012 and 2016 London attracted more tech investment than Paris, Berlin and Amsterdam combined.