Tuesday 01 July 2014 10:59 am | Updated: Thursday 06 June 2019 11:39 pm

Energy biggest winner from government’s £400m innovation investment

The energy sector has bagged the largest amount of investment from the government's innovation fund designed to boost Britain's business and economic growth.

The Technology strategy board, the government body tasked with supporting innovation, has outlined plans to fund 12 key sectors, earmarking at least £421m to spend on programmes in 2014 and 2015.

£82m is expected to go towards fueling energy innovation projects, closely followed by the health sector and high value manufacturing.

Focused on the areas of energy security, affordability and sustainability, projects outlined by the board include up to £10m to support an offshore renewable energy hub, up to £2m for shale gas technologies and up to a million for next generation solar technologies.

Another £1.5m will go towards establishing an Energy Systems Catapult, a global centre for developing new services and products for energy systems.

The UK energy supply industry contributed 3.5 per cent of GDP in 2012.

By 2050, offshore renewable energy could account for 10 per cent of the global market value in marine energy and almost 12 per cent in offshore wind, adding £34bn gross value added.