GOVERNMENT is investing in renewable energy innovation to bring the cost of technologies down.
This includes around £177 million in investments from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), Innovate UK, and the Research Councils.
As part of this commitment, within the BEIS Energy Innovation Programme, BEIS expects to invest around £15 million in the renewables innovation theme.
The UK is working with other countries to develop shared solutions to reducing the cost of renewable energy technologies.
This includes UK investments through the European Research Area Network of around £700,000 in bioenergy demonstration projects and up to £8 million in the ‘DemoWind’ programme to reduce the cost of offshore wind technologies.
BEIS is also investing up to £1.3 million in a new offshore wind innovation hub, to be delivered by the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult and the Knowledge Transfer Network. The Hub will bring industry together to innovate and reduce the cost of energy from offshore wind.
The hub’s first programme will be the Offshore Wind Innovation Exchange.
This cross-sector initiative will match industry challenges with innovative solutions adopted from other parts of the economy, to provide new opportunities for UK businesses.
Funded by the BEIS Energy Innovation Programme, the Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) competition is seeking proposals that can provide future offshore wind farm mitigation for UK Air Defence surveillance; including alternative technologies that could fill or remove gaps in radar coverage.
DASA is leading the work on behalf of BEIS, the Royal Air Force, and the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory.
Up to £2 million is available, intended to fund a number of contracts up to £500,000.
Further detail and information is available on the competition page.
