UK government announces £116m fund to develop green technologies
The money will be split between direct air capture and greenhouse gas removal, SME tech innovations, and business development support services
The UK government has promised a new £116 million cash injection for green technology innovation, aiming to boost job creation as well as delivering on ambitious net zero goals.
Carbon capture technologies, energy efficiency innovators, and clean tech start-ups are all set to benefit from the funding boost, which will be split between three streams designed to help businesses develop new green technologies.
"This £116m government investment will support businesses across the nation to turn their green ideas into reality, and to develop ground-breaking projects that save energy, slash utility bills and tackle pollution," said Greg Hands, Energy and Climate Change Minister.
"British businesses and entrepreneurs are already leading the world with innovative solutions to tackling climate change. This is not only good for the planet, but will bring new jobs and investment across the UK."
The largest share of the funding - £64 million - has been funnelled into the Direct Air Capture and Greenhouse Gas Removal programme, which provides funding for projects developing carbon capture and emissions removal technologies. It will go to the second phase of the programme, set to help take design projects from Phase 1 through to the demonstration stage, with a view to enabling commercial scale deployments from 2025.
The government hopes the new funding will help technologies attract further private investment, as interest in direct air capture and other forms of negative emissions technologies continues to grow.
The government also announced it has awarded £30 million to companies through the Energy Entrepreneurs Fund. The funding round will offer 58 small and medium sized businesses grants to develop energy efficiency, storage, and clean power and heat generation technologies.
The government had previously promised £11 million for the next phase of the fund, but today confirmed an extra £19 million owing to 'the large number of exceptional high-quality applications that were made'.
Examples include a low-energy residential ventilation system using AI, new hydrogen fuel cell technology to replace diesel engines in boats, and a system to remove emissions from the atmosphere as part of the decommissioning of old oil and gas wells.
The final share of the £116 million of funding announced today will see £22.8 million invested in business development support services for the SMEs developing projects through BEIS's £1 billion Net Zero Innovation Portfolio. The Carbon Trust will lead expert organisations in offering advice to businesses in the portfolio.
Technical support will also be provided through the Technical Third Party Support project, which will see expertise in technological coordination, social research, carbon control and storage, energy consumption, generation and distribution offered to key projects in the Portfolio.
This story originally appeared on our sister site, Business Green.
Computing will run the Tech Impact Conference next year, exploring the relationship between tech and the climate - including case studies about the road to net zero, how to go green in your data centre and supply chain, and how to make small changes with a big impact. For those who are passionate about the planet - and even those who are wary of the implications of rapid change - there has never been a better time to get involved.
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