United Kingdom Energy Technologies Institute
Encyclopedia
The Energy Technologies Institute is a UK based company formed from global industries and the UK government. It brings together projects that create affordable, reliable, clean energy for heat, power, transport and associated infrastructure.

The ETI will demonstrate technologies, develop knowledge, skills and supply-chains, inform the development of regulation, standards and policy, and so accelerate the deployment of affordable, secure low-carbon energy systems from 2020 to 2050.

It is a public-private partnership between gloal industries - BP, Caterpillar, EDF, E.ON, Rolls-Royce and Shell - and the UK Government.

It is a public private partnership that thinks and acts strategically with a view of the whole UK energy system.
  • Industry is investing heavily in the organisation. ETI has six of the largest global industries as partners – Rolls-Royce, EDF Energy, E.ON, Shell, BP and Caterpillar
  • Is not a grant giving body but makes targeted investments in large scale engineering projects designed to make a strategic difference to the economy


Commentators have generally welcomed the new body as likely to make a positive contribution in the efforts to minimise climate change
Climate change
Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years. It may be a change in average weather conditions or the distribution of events around that average...

 . At the same time, they have pointed to the slow pace of government action in promoting energy conservation
Energy conservation
Energy conservation refers to efforts made to reduce energy consumption. Energy conservation can be achieved through increased efficient energy use, in conjunction with decreased energy consumption and/or reduced consumption from conventional energy sources...

 and implementing the many low-carbon technologies that already exist , compared to progress in a number of other European countries .

Funding

In addition to initial funding for the ETI, the Department for Business
Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform
The Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform was a United Kingdom government department. The department was created on 28 June 2007 on the disbanding of the Department of Trade and Industry , and was itself disbanded on 6 June 2009 on the creation of the Department for Business,...

 is to provide funds of £50 million each year over a period of 10 years starting in 2008-09. The Government expects that the separate Energy Research Partnership http://www.energyresearchpartnership.com will raise matching funding from commercial organisations.

The Energy Technologies Institute is a private sector organisation, established as a unique private-public partnership, funded equally by member companies and the UK Government. It is governed by an Executive Board. Each private sector member has one seat on the ETI Board.

By bringing together the efforts and investments of both private and public sectors, and by focusing on key energy challenges with a new level of scale and ambition, the Energy Technologies Institute has the potential to achieve step change advances in the demonstration of low carbon technologies. Our Member companies’ expertise, resources and the potential route to commercialisation that they offer is one of the strengths of the ETI.

Objectives

Five objectives have been set for the institute:
  • To increase the level of research and development funding to meet the UK’s energy policy goals
    Energy policy of the United Kingdom
    The current energy policy of the United Kingdom is set out in the Energy White Paper of May 2007 and Low Carbon Transition Plan of July 2009, building on previous work including the 2003 Energy White Paper and the Energy Review Report in 2006...

    .
  • To deliver research and development that facilitates the rapid commercial deployment of cost-effective, low-carbon energy technologies.
  • To provide better strategic focus for commercially applicable energy related research and development in the UK.
  • To connect and manage networks of the best scientists and engineers to deliver focussed energy research and development projects to accelerate eventual commercial deployment.
  • To build research and development capacity in the UK in the relevant technical disciplines to deliver the UK’s energy policy goals.

Research focus

The ETI currently has the following programme areas:
  • Ofshore wind
  • Marine
  • Carbon Capture and Storage
  • Transport
  • Distributed Energy
  • Energy Storage and Distribution
  • Bio-energy
  • Buildings


The ETI also has a distinctive Energy Systems Model which gathers data from a diverse range of global industries, including the ETI’s six members. It incorporates novel features including probabilistic functions to reflect uncertainty and spatial mapping to identify a mix of potential energy sources and the cost implications and timings associated with implementing them.

The ETI focuses on the WHOLE energy system and provides strategic direction for the UK, including the interactions within the energy system for optimisation. It does not focus on one particular area but across the spectrum of heat, power, transport and crucially the infrastructure that links them.

The ETI operates at large scale and is tasked with developing technologies that will help the UK meet its legally binding 2050 carbon reduction targets under the Climate Change Act.
It delivers complex engineering projects by reducing risk through the shared expertise and experience of its industrial members. develops large scale engineering solutions that are not being provided by individual companies and harnesses the expertise of large corporates along with the ideas and innovation of SMEs and academics.

Background

Historically, public sector support for energy research and development in the UK has been provided by a variety of bodies with little co-ordination between them. Problems experienced as a result of this included poor continuity of funding, and the availability of funding for certain parts of the research-development-commercialisation process but not others. Funding levels have also been low by international standards.

Location

In September 2007 it was announced that the Midlands Consortium had been chosen to host the Institute. The Consortium comprises the Universities of Birmingham, Loughborough and Nottingham with financial support from Advantage West Midlands and the East Midlands Development Agency.
The hub of the ETI will be based at Loughborough University
Loughborough University
Loughborough University is a research based campus university located in the market town of Loughborough, Leicestershire, in the East Midlands of England...

, on the Holywell Park area of the campus, at the heart of the University's Science and Enterprise Park, and brings with it up to 50 new jobs in the region.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK