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UPDATED 1 Sept: The EI library in London is temporarily closed to the public, as a precautionary measure in light of the ongoing COVID-19 situation. The Knowledge Service will still be answering email queries via email , or via live chats during working hours (09:15-17:00 GMT). Our e-library is always open for members here: eLibrary , for full-text access to over 200 e-books and millions of articles. Thank you for your patience.
Support for projects for UK industry and homes
The government has announced new support from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy’s £500mn innovation fund to help develop a series of industrial and domestic energy initiatives.
First, it has allocated £70mn of funding for a series of industrial projects, including two of Europe’s first low carbon hydrogen production plants – one the first on the banks of the River Mersey and the second planned for near Aberdeen. A third project – named Gigastack – will develop technology to harness offshore wind off the Grimsby coast to power electrolysis and produce hydrogen – see also page 20.
The investment will also fund projects to trial cutting edge technologies for switching industrial production from fossil fuels to renewables in industries such as cement and glass production.
A further £21mn will be used to fund ten projects which won a competition, part of the UK Research and Innovation’s Prospering from the Energy Revolution challenge, aimed at cutting household emissions and bills through nine UK-wide local smart energy projects. If successful, the community pilot projects could revolutionise local energy generation.
For example, in Rugeley, near Stafford, a coal-fired power station is to be demolished and turned into a sustainable village of 2,300 homes. Residents will benefit from thermal storage units instead of traditional gas boilers, enabling them to draw, store and heat their homes with geothermal energy from local canals and disused mine shafts.
In Coleraine, Northern Ireland, a microgrid of nearly 100 homes will be established, powered entirely by local wind power. It will help lower household electricity bills by as much as half, and boost the contribution of renewables to the local energy mix by a quarter.
Other competition winners include:
- Peterborough Integrated Renewables Infrastructure, which will integrate low carbon energy provisions and support sustainable growth by integrating electrification, mobility and heat provision locally.
- Project REMeDY, based in Southend, which will develop its Horizontally Integrated Vertical Energy Systems (HIVES) approach to produce a local energy system design that is replicable across the UK.
- Milford Haven Energy Kingdom, centred in Milford Haven, which will focus on developing diverse, local seed markets to support the transition to hydrogen and renewables from fossil fuels.
News Item details
Journal title: Energy World
Countries: UK -
Organisation: Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy
Subjects: Funding, Innovation
