The UK government has announced a competition worth £41.5m (~€47.4m) in funding for energy supply, storage and demand solutions for local energy systems.
The funding will be allocated through government funding body Innovate UK, and will be used to support the design and practical demonstration of new business models which could facilitate and link together energy supply, storage and demand solutions. The competition is now open for applications.
The investment is divided into two parts, with up to £40m being made available to fund three smart energy system demonstrator projects, while up to £1.5m has been allocated to financing studies into smarter and more innovative approaches to local energy.
What are the aims of the competition?
The funding forms part of the UK government’s Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund, which aims to take advantage of the ongoing energy revolution, and aid the UK’s transition away from fossil fuels to greener and more sustainable forms of energy in the wake of binding carbon reduction commitments as part of the Paris Climate Agreement.
The competition aims to help businesses to develop local energy approaches and to develop them at commercial scale, to ensure that local systems can deliver cleaner – but also cheaper – energy supply, storage and demand solutions by the early 2020s, which in turn will support the UK’s economic growth.
What is Innovate UK looking for in winning projects?
The demonstrator projects that the Innovate UK competition is seeking to fund should be based in medium or large UK towns, and should fulfil a number of criteria. In particular, projects should:
- Reduce costs and cut emissions while delivering economic benefits;
- Create smart links between energy supply and demand;
- Optimise energy across a range of supplies, infrastructure and demands; and
- Develop models and processes for designing, financing, building and operating smart local energy systems.
Another factor will be the viability of the projects to generate additional private investment, particularly once they have been demonstrated at commercial scale, so that they can be rolled out across the UK and transform local energy systems across the country.
