£1.1bn to cut greenhouse gases

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Three Scottish institutions are to benefit from a potential £1.1billion fund aimed at supporting the achievement of the UK's challenging targets for the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.

The Energy Technologies Institute (ETI), a unique partnership between global industries and the UK Government, has revealed funding for its first four projects, all with the ultimate aim of providing the public with more affordable, low carbon electricity.

Project Helm Wind is aimed at delivering a concept design and feasibility study for a new offshore-specific wind farm and seeks to overcome the issues facing today's systems including turbine reliability and accessing equipment for maintenance. It comprises a UK-based consortium led by E.ON Engineering and including representatives from the University of Strathclyde, Rolls-Royce, and BP Alternative Energy.

The University of Edinburgh and the Orkney-based European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) are part of Project ReDAPT which plans to install and test a 1MW tidal turbine at the EMEC in Orkney, delivering detailed environmental and performance information never before achieved at this scale in real sea conditions. The consortium is led by Rolls-Royce and also includes Tidal Generation Limited, Garrad Hassan, , EDF Energy, E.ON, and Plymouth Marine Laboratories.

First Minister Alex Salmond described the announcement as fantastic news for the world class research and development expertise in Scottish universities.

"The Universities of Strathclyde, Edinburgh, and the European Marine Energy Centre will be at the heart of building cutting edge, sustainable technologies for a clean energy future. The Scottish success in these initial bids, leading three out of the four successful consortia, is a vindication of the potential of the Energy Technology Partnership of cooperation between the Scottish universities.

"The announcement by the ETI takes Scotland closer to becoming a centre of excellence for renewable energy technology and further enhances Scotland's capability and innovative capacity," he said.

Scottish Funding Council chief executive Mark Batho added: "Scotland's universities are particularly well placed to address these pressing environmental and renewable energy challenges. The role of the universities of Edinburgh and Strathclyde in the projects announced today is a reflection of Scotland's engineering research excellence and of the strength of the academic and industrial partnerships within Scotland."