Energy Innovation: BEIS £505m programme – lessons learned and setting future priorities

Energy Innovation: BEIS £505m programme – lessons learned and setting future priorities

Matthew Billson, BEIS

The BEIS £505m Energy Innovation Programme was established in 2015 to run over a 5 year period to 2021.  Its objective is to accelerate the development of energy technologies needed to meet – initially – the UK’s 80% climate target, and now Net Zero.

A successor to DECC’s 2010-2015 energy innovation programme, the Programme is structured over 6 themes of nuclear, renewables, industry & CCS, smart, built, and cross-cutting.

The paper will give a policy-maker’s view of progress to date under the Programme, and lessons learned.

It will then give a forward looking approach on how to set future priorities for any further activity in the next 5 year period, focussing on the Energy Innovation Needs Assessment work commissioned by BEIS and published in 2019.

That work incorporated three main aspects: (a) innovation-focussed runs under the Energy Systems Catapult ESME whole system model; (b) analysis on innovation needs for shortlisted technology areas; (c) expert stakeholder input.