Guidance

Funding for innovation in renewable energy

Government funding for innovation in renewable energy.

• From: Department for Energy Security and Net Zero and Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy
• Published: 25 January 2017
• Last updated: 6 March 2020 — See all updates

Renewable energy innovation

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.

Joint collaborations to reduce the cost of renewables

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 (ERAnet) 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.

Offshore wind innovation hub

Building on the UK’s unique expertise in the offshore wind industry, BEIS is 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 accelerate the cost reduction of energy from offshore wind by matching industry challenges with innovative solutions adopted from other parts of the economy, to provide new opportunities for UK businesses.

Windfarm mitigation for UK air defence

Funded by the BEIS Energy Innovation Programme, the Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) competition is seeking proposals that can provide future offshore windfarm 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 (Dstl).

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.

Published 25 January 2017
Last updated 6 March 2020 + show all updates

1. 6 March 2020

   Added information about the Windfarm mitigation for UK air defence competition.

2. 12 October 2017

   Updates from Clean Growth Strategy.

3. 25 January 2017

   First published.