News
The Energy Technologies Institute announces its third Technology Programme, in Distributed Energy
16 April 2008
£30 million of funding available to accelerate the demonstration and commercial deployment of new technologies to reduce CO2 emissions.
The Energy Technologies Institute (ETI) has announced the launch of its third Technology Programme, which will invite Expressions of Interest from organisations who wish to work with the ETI in collaborative research, development and demonstration projects in the area of Distributed Energy (DE). This latest Programme follows the launch of the ETI's first Programmes in Offshore Wind and Marine - Wave and Tidal in December 2007, shortly after the formation of the ETI.
The ETI sees DE as a vital part of the drive to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. An ETI Working Group carried out an extensive analysis of the potential for both domestic and commercial scale DE to contribute to the UK energy supply emissions reductions. Their analysis identified that a reduction of up to 30% in CO2 emissions from heat and power could be achieved by 2050, and recommended that projects should focus on:
- Reducing costs and improving ease of installation
- Increasing efficiency in the combined generation of heat and electricity
- Increasing the use of renewable and low carbon sources of energy
The ETI expects that projects which will be developed as part of the DE Technology Programme will cover solutions for applications from individual residential dwellings up to commercial, industrial and community scale (typically from 1 kWe to 10 MWe). Key areas of focus include:
- Energy conversion devices and energy storage systems
- Integrated systems for maximum efficiency and lowest through-life cost
- Combined Heat and Power modularisation and cost reduction
- Integrated energy supply processing, such as anaerobic digestion, gasification of waste, utilisation of waste gases.
although this is not an exhaustive list and projects in related areas will be considered.
Funding for the DE Programme is planned for up to £30 million, with projects likely to involve multi-organisation consortia, and project funding to be in the range of £5 million to £10 million per project.
Chief Executive, David Clarke said he was delighted to be launching the third Programme in the knowledge that the first two Programmes, in Offshore Wind and Marine, had progressed very successfully since their launch: "When we launched the Invitation for Expressions of Interest for both the Offshore Wind and Marine Programmes before Christmas, we were very much sailing into uncharted territory.
"Having received over 120 Expressions of Interest for each Programme and held our first Project Building workshops, we have selected a shortlist of projects in each area which we are now taking forward to the next stage of development.
"This has given us valuable learning and experience which we shall incorporate into the DE Programme and so build on our successes to date."
As part of the DE Programme, the ETI will be holding a consultation workshop with representatives form a broad stakeholder group, to assist with the further development of its analysis of the opportunities and barriers to successful commercial implementation of new DE technologies.
The deadline for submission of initial Expressions of Interest for the DE Programme is Friday 23 May 2008. A DE information pack is available on the ETI website www.energytechnologies.co.uk