Weekly Intelligence Brief

UK cleantech sector receives £18m boost

30 October 2009

The Carbon Trust has decided to provide up to £18 million in additional funding for the UK clean energy sector.

The investment is being planned over the next 12-18 months to help plug the financing gap faced by early stage UK clean energy businesses. The funding has been provided by the Department of Energy and Climate Change.

Investment will focus on companies that offer prospects of a strong commercial return and, in particular, on those technologies where the UK has natural strength and potential to become a global leader, according to The Carbon Trust.

This cash injection will help safeguard the new generation of promising renewable technologies, said Ed Miliband, secretary of state for energy and climate change.

Recently, it was highlighted that advancements in technologies such as wave and tidal are dependent on a mixture of R&D grant support and venture capital, but the flow of private money for early stage development has fallen back since the downturn started in 2008. As a result, companies in this sector are finding it harder to respond to the new opportunities , or to bring their innovations to market quickly. The role of venture capital in innovation and commercialisation of new low carbon technologies more than doubled between 2003 and 2007.

Read more:

Department of Energy and Climate Change: http://social.tidaltoday.com/search/node/Department+of+Energy+and+Climate+Change

The Carbon Trust: http://social.tidaltoday.com/search/node/The+Carbon+Trust