UK Gov’t allocates £166m to green technology development
The UK Government has given a £166.5 million (€192 million) cash injection to the development of green technology.
The multi-million-pound investment, awarded to innovators, business, academics and heavy industry across the UK, will accelerate the delivery of the game-changing technologies needed to further drive the UK’s climate change ambitions while creating over 60,000 jobs.
Technologies in carbon capture, greenhouse gas (GHG) removal and hydrogen will benefit from the funding while helping to find solutions to decarbonise the UK’s polluting sectors including manufacturing, steel, energy and waste.
Energy Minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan, said: “We are determined to tackle climate change and make it win-win for both our planet and our economy.
“Today’s major cash boost – targeted at our most polluting industries – will encourage the rapid development of the technologies we need to reign in our emissions and transition to a green economy, one that reduces costs for business, boosts investment, and creates jobs.
“Just six months ago, the Prime Minister set out a clear 10 Point Plan for creating and supporting up to 250,000 UK jobs as we level up and build back greener from the pandemic.
“Today we’re boosting our armoury for the fight against climate change and backing innovators and businesses to create green jobs right across the UK.”
The new funding announced on 24 May includes:
The multi-million-pound investment, awarded to innovators, business, academics and heavy industry across the UK, will accelerate the delivery of the game-changing technologies needed to further drive the UK’s climate change ambitions while creating over 60,000 jobs.
Technologies in carbon capture, greenhouse gas (GHG) removal and hydrogen will benefit from the funding while helping to find solutions to decarbonise the UK’s polluting sectors including manufacturing, steel, energy and waste.
Energy Minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan, said: “We are determined to tackle climate change and make it win-win for both our planet and our economy.
“Today’s major cash boost – targeted at our most polluting industries – will encourage the rapid development of the technologies we need to reign in our emissions and transition to a green economy, one that reduces costs for business, boosts investment, and creates jobs.
“Just six months ago, the Prime Minister set out a clear 10 Point Plan for creating and supporting up to 250,000 UK jobs as we level up and build back greener from the pandemic.
“Today we’re boosting our armoury for the fight against climate change and backing innovators and businesses to create green jobs right across the UK.”
The new funding announced on 24 May includes:
- £60 million (€69 million) to support the development of low-carbon hydrogen in the UK and to identify and scale up more efficient solutions for making clean hydrogen from water using electricity.
- £37.5 million (€43 million) to fund the largest government programme of GHG removal methods helping cement the UK’s status as a world leader in this technology. Of this, 24 projects across England and Wales will receive up to £250,000 (€289,000) to fund innovative designs that develop new ways of removing GHGs from the atmosphere and store them safely. A further five projects will receive up to £4.5 million (€2 million) each to explore the viability of adopting GHG removal methods at scale.
- £20 million (€23 million) to support the development of the next-generation carbon capture, usage, and storage (CCUS) technologies so they can be deployed at scale by 2030. This could include reducing the cost of deploying CCUS and helping industrial waste or power sector companies to capture and store harmful emissions from the source before they are emitted into the atmosphere.
- £20 million (€23 million) to establish a new virtual Industrial Decarbonisation Research and Innovation Centre that will accelerate the decarbonisation of key energy-intensive industries which currently make a significant contribution to UK emissions. Run by Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, the centre will bring together new technologies and address the challenges faced by industrial areas helping to reduce costs, risks, and emissions.
- £16.5 million (€1 million) through the Industrial Energy Transformation Fund to develop new technologies and processes that help energy-intensive sectors cut their emissions while reducing their energy bills.
- £8 million (€2 million) for projects to develop innovations, such as repurposing textile waste, new clay production techniques for the ceramics industry and concrete manufacturing that support the recovery and sustainability of UK industry.
- £4.7 million (€4 million) will establish a new Transforming Foundation Industries Research and Innovation Hub. The hub will be led by Cranfield University and will help industries like metals, glass, cement and paper to work together to address their common challenges.
