Ed Davey: Encouraging clean energy

Speaking ahead of the first of two days of international talks on clean energy in London recently, he said: 'Part of the way that we're going to tackle climate change and get clean energy is through innovation, particularly with SMEs. We're allocating a fund of £35 million which will help innovators and entrepreneurs develop and demonstrate low carbon technologies.

'The first wave is going to be in energy efficiency in buildings, things like advanced lighting, heat pumps, ventilation technologies and so on. This is a practical way that we can make sure we get to the low carbon economy.'

The Energy Entrepreneurs Fund will have a budget of up to £35 million over the next three years and will provide financial support for SMEs to develop and demonstrate their ideas. They will be able to apply for up to £1 million funding from Government and can then use that to leverage extra funds from private sector investors. In addition, they will be able to get support from experts on how to bring their products to market. A panel of investors will provide advice to DECC on picking the companies to support.

Of the £35 million, £20 million from DECC's Buildings Innovation Programme will initially support energy efficiency technologies and details of the application process will be available by the summer this year. £15 million will expand the call into power generation at a later stage.

In addition, DECC will shortly introduce a £3 million competition, in partnership with the Technology Strategy Board, to assess the performance of advanced heat storage technologies suitable for integration with domestic heating systems.

The scheme's aim is to assess the viability and benefits of novel compact heat storage materials which can be installed in homes to even out peak electricity demand from low carbon heat technologies such as heat pumps.

A new carbon funding landscape navigator has gone live, making it easier for providers of and applicants for low carbon funding to link up. At www.lowcarbonfunding.org.uk, the navigator has been developed by the Energy Generation & Supply Knowledge Transfer Network with support from DECC.

Users will be able to search for the latest funding opportunities in the low carbon area and get help to find the right partners to build collaborations for specific calls.

For more information, visit www. decc.gov.uk