Energy and Climate Change Secretary Chris Huhne has heard about the ETI’s vision of the UK’s energy system of the future on a visit to their headquarters in Loughborough.

The Energy Technologies Institute (ETI) is a public private partnership between six global industrial companies and the UK Government tasked with developing “mass scale” technologies that will help the UK meet its 2020 and 2050 energy targets.

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During his visit Mr Huhne received details about the ETI’s programmes in eight programme areas covering offshore wind, marine, distributed energy, buildings, energy storage and distribution, carbon capture and storage, transport and bio energy.

The ETI has invested £62m in projects in these areas designed to make energy more sustainable, secure and affordable with a further £120m of projects in development.

Mr Huhne was also given details of the ETI’s Energy System Model which has been developed to identify an understanding of the critical issues for the UK in reaching 2020 and 2050 energy and climate change targets. The model focuses on identifying the lowest cost solutions for the UK and provides an assessment of the various technologies capable of making the greatest impact.

The ETI’s model has already been used by the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) in support of its 2050 Pathways work, including its 2050 Calculator which was updated last week. (http://www.decc.gov.uk/en/content/cms/news/2050_sim/2050_sim.aspx) and by the Committee on Climate Change in its forth carbon budget and upcoming renewables review.

ETI Chief Executive Dr David Clarke said: “We were delighted to welcome Mr Huhne to the ETI at a time when the low carbon agenda is back in the headlines. Last week he made a speech on A Blueprint for our Future Energy when he said we have to move further and faster towards a low carbon economy.

“He said there are three pillars in his plan for low carbon electricity: renewables, nuclear, clean coal and gas with CCS. This is very similar to the ETI’s view, with nuclear, CCS and in the renewables sector, offshore wind, bio energy and tidal stream playing very important parts. The ETI is investing heavily in projects to accelerate technologies across heat, power, transport and the infrastructure that links them.

“We need a route to 2050 which offers sustainable and secure energy supplies that are also practical and affordable. It is a huge challenge but the work we are doing at the ETI developing and demonstrating new engineering and technology solutions with UK industry suggests it is achievable.”