£264m to support green technologies

The government has pledged £264 million of funding to support the development of new technologies promoting energy efficiency and the widespread deployment of renewables

Science minister David Willetts has announced that the business department is to invest millions in research and development projects that it hopes will lead to scientific breakthroughs in energy efficiency, advanced materials and robotics, and be translated into technologies with a commercial application.

The £600 million pot is to be split across eight “great technologies” that will be key for the UK’s economy in future, confirmed Willets, with the largest share (£189 million) dedicated to projects developing energy-efficient computing technologies.

A total of £45 million will be invested in new facilities and equipment for research into using advanced materials, such as light-weight composites and high-performance alloys, and their application in low-energy electronics and telecommunications, for example.

Meanwhile, £30 million will be spent on research and development centres to test new grid-scale energy storage technologies. The government believes such technologies will play a key role in cutting national carbon emissions by enabling the use of excess energy that is currently wasted, and support the greater roll out of renewable technologies, such as wind and wave, which produce intermittent power.