Energy Technologies Institute launches more than £50m of projects in 2009

17th December 2009

Innovation and cost reduction in offshore wind, marine, transport, distribution, carbon capture and storage, and distributed energy will help UK address 2050 carbon reduction targets

The Energy Technologies Institute, the organisation tasked with developing the technologies and engineering approaches that will help the UK meet its 2050 carbon reduction targets, today published a review of the projects it has funded in 2009.

In total, the ETI has provided in excess of £53m funding for 15 projects in offshore wind, marine, transport, carbon capture and storage, energy storage and distribution and distributed energy.

These include:

• An £11m Plug-in Vehicle Economics and Infrastructure project, including the world's most extensive evaluation of consumer's attitudes to plug-in vehicles enabling effective investment.


• An £8m project to accurately estimate the energy yield of major wave and tidal stream arrays.


• A £5.1m project to detect causes of faults and component failures in offshore wind turbines.


• A £3.8m project looking at developing the UK’s first national database of geological storage capacity for CO2.

The ETI also developed its unique Energy System Model to help identify those technologies capable of having the greatest impact through to 2050 under a range of different demand scenarios. The model will highlight the associated costs and risks of meeting those energy targets.

A further £70m of contracts are in development for launch in the first part of 2010.

Under the Climate Change Act, Britain is obliged to cut its emissions by 80% from its 1990 levels by 2050.

The ETI brings together the complementary capabilities of global industrial groups – BP, Caterpillar, EDF Energy, E.ON , Rolls Royce and Shell - in a unique approach with the UK government. Operating at a national strategic level it is delivering large scale complex engineering solutions for the UK energy system helping to meet 2050 challenges.

Over 10 years the ETI aims to invest up to £1bn in engineering, technology and science in support of the UK's low carbon economy drive to identify and deliver projects that will help the UK to:

• Cut CO2 emissions;


• Deliver affordable energy to consumers; and


• Increase the security of energy supplies.

ETI Chief Executive Dr David Clarke said: "2009 has seen the first tranche of ETI-funded projects. There is an urgent need to accelerate the development and deployment of low-carbon technologies to meet the UK’s energy targets and support industrial and domestic consumers. Our job is to deliver the large scale complex engineering solutions that will accelerate the commercial deployment of energy technologies and help reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The carbon reduction targets for both 2020 and 2050 require an integrated change in all sectors and affordability is critical. We need to ensure there is large-scale development and deployment through major industries, innovation from smaller enterprises and academia as well as sustained support for long-term incentives, skills development and regulatory frameworks. With a further raft of projects in development, 2010 will be an even busier year for the ETI as we announce investment in more projects that will help overcome major barriers to the deployment of low-carbon energy."

The ETI is addressing all aspects of the UK energy system – Power, Heat, Transport and the associated infrastructure and its key programme areas are currently Offshore Wind, Marine, Distributed Energy, Buildings, Energy Storage and Distribution, CCS and Transport.

For further information please contact Nigel Richardson on 01509 202084 / 07827 946064

Notes to Editors

• The Energy Technologies Institute is a UK based company formed from global industries and the UK Government. The ETI brings together projects and partnerships that create affordable, reliable, clean energy for heat, power and transport. For more information, please go to: www.energytechnologies.co.uk


• The ETI’s six private sector members are BP, Caterpillar, EDF Energy, E.ON, Rolls-Royce and Shell. The UK Government has committed to match support from four further Members.  The ETI’s public funds are received from the Department for Business Innovation and Skills through the Technology Strategy Board and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). These organisations, together with the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC), are engaged directly in the ETI’s strategy and programme development.


• The ETI will accelerate the deployment of affordable, secure low-carbon energy systems from 2020 to 2050 by demonstrating technologies, developing knowledge, skills and supply-chains and informing the development of regulation, standards and policy.


• The ETI has invested in the following projects in 2009

Offshore Wind

Condition Monitoring £5.1m / 3 years Developing condition monitoring system for reduced electricity generation costs
Deep Water £3.3m / 2 years Design of a floating 5MW deepwater turbine
Helm Wind £2.5m / 2 years Design of a low cost offshore turbine and array interconnection
NOVA (Novel Offshore Vertical Axis Demonstrator) £2.8m / 2 years Design of a low maintenance, vertical axis offshore turbine
Marine

ReDAPT (Reliable Data Acquisition Platform for Tidal) £12.4m / 4 years Design, manufacture and test of 1MW tidal turbine with through life performance and environmental monitoring and modelling
PerAWAT (Performance Assessment of Wave and Tidal Array Systems) £7.9m / 4 years Development of tidal and wave array performance prediction tools to increase confidence in project developments
Wet-mate connector £1.1m/18 months Development of  an 11kV wet-mate connector, to be  tested and demonstrated under workshop and real-sea conditions, which could considerably reduce the cost of cabling from offshore wave and tidal farms
Distributed Energy

Energy from Waste £1.4m / 2 years Mapping of UK waste streams to allow development of specification of more flexible generating plant
CCS

Next Generation Capture Technologies – CCS Performance Analysis £0.3m / 1 year Identification of preferred next generation separation and capture technologies and benchmarking
UK Storage Appraisal £3.8m / 2 years Identification and quantification of UK geological storage capacity for CO2
Transport

Demonstration of Heavy Duty Vehicle Efficiency Technologies £0.3m / 1 year Identification of key opportunities and technology needs for efficiency improvements in heavy duty road, off-road and marine vehicles
Plug in vehicle infrastructure and economics £11m / 3-4 years Evaluation of consumer attitudes and development of infrastructure requirements and approaches for implementation across the UK
Energy Storage and Distribution

Offshore Connection  £0.25m / 7 months Identifying options for reducing cost of connecting large-scale offshore renewables to the grid
Network Capacity  £0.6m / 7 months Identifying options for increasing transmission and distribution capacity in the UK and reducing the cost of connecting onshore distributed generation systems
Energy Systems Modelling Environment

Energy Systems Model £1m/12 months Model to help identify technologies capable of having the greatest impact for 2050 and highlight those technologies which might offer the lowest technical and financial risk based on a number of different scenarios