The UK is to establish a centre for battery research as part of a four-year, £246 million government programmed aimed at making the country a world leader in the design, development and manufacture of electric batteries.

Business secretary signals shift to clean energy

The plans were unveiled on Monday by Business Secretary Greg Clark as he signalled a shift in the government's industrial strategy towards cleaner technologies such as electric cars and enabling householders with solar panels to store electricity in affordable domestic batteries.Speaking at a conference in Birmingham organised by the Resolution Foundation think-tank, Mr Clark said the government programme, known as the Faraday Challenge, would see the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) spearheading a £45 million project to bring together the best minds and facilities to create a 'battery institute'.Amid criticism that the UK had allowed South Korea, Japan and China to take a lead in battery technology, Mr Clark said a shift to cleaner energy and technologies – such as electric cars – had made the design, development and manufacture of batteries a top industrial priority.

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He also said the long-term vision also included creating giant battery facilities around the National Grid to store excess wind and solar energy, to be used when demand rose.“To enjoy a high and rising standard of living we must plan to be more productive than in the past,” Mr Clark said. “Economists have pointed to what they have called a productivity puzzle in Britain. That we appear to generate less value for our efforts than, say, people in Germany or France. In other words, we have to work longer to get the same rewards.“It's not that we want – or need – people to work longer hours. It's that we need to ensure that we find and seize opportunities to work more productively as a country, as cities and regions, as businesses and as individuals. If we can do so, we can increase the earning power of our country and our people.”

Businesses respond positively to government’s strategy

Mr Clark said there had been an “extraordinary” response to a Green Paper on the government's Industrial Strategy, with more than 1,900 written responses, from new start-ups to big businesses, and from organisations as diverse as the Premier League to the Women's Engineering Society.“Later in the year we will respond formally to the consultation with a White Paper, but the shape of it is already becoming clear,” he said. “One of the strengths of an industrial strategy is to be able to bring together concerted effort on areas of opportunity that have previously been in different sectors, or which require joining forces between entrepreneurs, scientists and researchers, industries, and local and national government.”Sir Mark Walport, the government's chief scientific adviser, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that the prime purpose of the government's investment was to improve battery technology.“Then, of course, the challenge is to turn that science into innovation and then scale it up, so that we can build the cars of the future,” he said. “Cars are going to change very dramatically – essentially, they're going to be a battery, a computer, on a chassis.”Philip Nelson, chief executive of the EPSRC, commented, “The Faraday Challenge is a new way of working. It will bring together the best minds in the field, draw on others from different disciplines, and link intimately with industry, innovators and other funders...to ensure we maintain our world-leading position and keep the pipeline of fundamental science to innovation flowing.”For related news and features, visit our Technology section.

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