Decarbonisation Technology - August 2023 Issue

How the UK government is supporting cleantech innovation Through its Net Zero Innovation Portfolio, UK government aims to accelerate the development of low-carbon fuel alternatives and fuel switching solutions

Nuz Fatima, Shak Choudhury and Will France Department for Energy Security & Net Zero

I nnovation is a fundamental part of the transition to net zero. The UK government is providing a combined total of £1.3 billion from the Net Zero Innovation Portfolio (NZIP) and the Advanced Nuclear Fund (ANF) from the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero to accelerate the commercialisation of key technologies which have the potential to contribute to this low-carbon future. The NZIP is key to supporting the UK’s pathway to a low-carbon future by 2050 as part of the government’s Net Zero Growth Plan (HM Government, 2023). NZIP aims to decrease the costs of decarbonisation, underpin innovation across the energy system, and drive economic growth by anchoring new technology to the UK. NZIP was launched in April 2021 and will run to March 2025. It is part of a wider ecosystem of public funding as set out in the Net Zero Research and Innovation Framework (HM Government, 2021) and the accompanying Delivery Plan (HM Government, 2023b). We are now halfway through delivering the NZIP and have already supported more than 450 projects and nearly 4,000 jobs (see Figure 1 ). These projects reflect the energy challenges we face and the exciting technologies being developed to address these. Amongst others, this is apparent in industrial decarbonisation, including developing low-carbon fuels for UK industry. Industrial Fuel Switching programme As part of the NZIP, the government has now committed up to £57.5 million of funding through the Industrial Fuel Switching (IFS) programme to support the development and demonstration of fuel switching and fuel

Number of projects

TRL progression

Finance leveraged

Jobs created

457 projects

35% of projects increased their TRL so far (n=97)*

£345m BEIS funding leveraged £345 million in matched funding (n=449)*

3,810 At least 3,810 full time equivalents have been supported by NZIP (n=354)*

completed or ongoing

*n=number of projects

Hydrogen

Industry

Advanced carbon capture usage and storage

Bioenergy

Advanced nuclear

Greenhouse gas removal

Future oshore wind

Homes and buildings

Energy storage and exibility

Disruptive technologies

switch enabling technologies for UK industry. This includes fuel switches from high-carbon fuels to hydrogen, electricity, biomass, and other low-carbon fuels. The largest emissions sources include manufacturing and construction (such as iron and steel, chemical, and cement), oil refineries, and industrial non-road mobile machinery. The Industrial Decarbonisation Strategy (March 2021) highlighted fuel switching as one of five near-term innovation Figure 1 Key performance statistics of the Net Zero Innovation Portfolio from 2021-22