Asked by: Baroness Scott of Needham Market (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Callanan on 1 December (HL3482), whether they can provide a breakdown of the £194 million grant by (1) hydrogen fuel cells, (2) other electric battery technologies, (3) hydrogen combustion, (4) synthetic liquid fuels, and (5) biofuels.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
A breakdown of ATI Programme R&D grants awarded, by individual project, are set out in the table below. Co-funded R&D project supported through the ATI Programme typically involve a range of collaborators including industry partners, universities and research organisations (the ATI Programme has an average of 4 partners per project). Further project information and descriptions can be found on UKRI’s Gateway to Research (gtr.ukri.org) and the ATI website (ati.org.uk)
ACCEL (Rolls-Royce) – battery-electric powertrain | £3.4m |
AEDD (Vertical Aerospace) – diagnostic charge device for aircraft batteries | £1.2m |
AEMTA (Safran) – electro-mechanical systems for moving electrical motors and machines | £3.1m |
AEPEC (Safran) – electrical power systems | £10.8m |
AEROBAT (Rolls-Royce) – battery modules for all-electric propulsion systems | £7.3m |
AeroMC (Safran) – electric and hybrid propulsion and power controls | £14.9m |
E-HAV1 (Hybrid Air Vehicles) – electric propulsion system technologies | £1.1m |
EMPAS (QinetiQ) – electric motors for jet engines | £1.2m |
Feasibility Analysis and Modelling of MgB2 Superconducting Electrical Power Machines (Epoch Wires) – electric machines for future aircraft | £0.25m |
FRESSON (Cranfield Aerospace Solutions) – electric (hydrogen fuel cell) propulsion system | £9.6m |
H2GEAR (GKN Aerospace) – Liquid hydrogen (fuel cell) propulsion system | £27.2m |
HEPBAS (Electroflight) – electric drivetrain and battery systems | £0.4m |
HEPBAS (Electroflight) – electric propulsion battery systems | £0.35m |
HIDASP (MicroLink Devices) – solar fuel cells for electric aircraft | £3.0m |
HYFLY (Airbus) – airframe integration for hybrid electric demonstrator | £14m |
HYFLYER (ZeroAvia) – hydrogen fuel cell propulsion system | £2.7m |
HYFLYER 2 (ZeroAvia) – hydrogen fuel-cell propulsion system | £12.3m |
IDP (Vertical Aerospace) – key technologies for battery-electric flying taxi | £11.9m |
INCEPTION (Blue Bear) – all electric propulsion module using batteries and fuel cells | £2.9m |
IPCCA (Collins) – architecture for motor drive electronics | £2.4m |
IPPA (Airbus) – identify key technologies enabling more electrical aircraft | £4.2m |
LACS (Blue Dolphin UK) | £0.32m |
LAMPS (Collins Aerospace) – power electronics and motors | £1.3m |
MEGAFLIGHT (Rolls-Royce) – propulsion system for hybrid electric demonstrator | £17.2m |
SMPP (Safran) – electrical systems for more electric aircraft | £12.2m |
SREEV (Advanced Innovative Engineering) – Hybrid power units for UAVs | £0.53m |
UTOPEA (Evolito/YASA) – electric motors and power electronics | £5.5m |
ZEST-1 (Airbus) – initial steps towards large hydrogen-powered aircraft | £19.5m |
ZIP (Airbus) – key technologies for high altitude satellites | £3.6m |
Asked by: Baroness Scott of Needham Market (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask His Majesty's Government what financial assistance they have given to (1) businesses, or (2) academic institutions, in connection with low carbon aviation in the form of (a) grants, (b) loans, (c) guarantees or indemnities, (d) acquisitions of shares or securities, (e) undertakings or assets, or (f) incurring expenditure, for the benefit of the body assisted in the creation of (i) hydrogen fuel cells, (ii) other electric battery technologies, (iii) hydrogen combustion, (iv) synthetic liquid fuels, and (v) biofuels.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Government co-invests in mid-stage R&D, with industry, to develop new ultra-efficient and zero-carbon aircraft technologies through the Aerospace Technology Institute (ATI) Programme. Since 2013, the ATI Programme has committed R&D grants to 29 industry-led collaborative projects on new forms of propulsion or fuels totalling £194m. Industry will co-invest £178m alongside these grants. The R&D projects cover a range of technologies but are primarily focused on aircraft propulsion systems involving hydrogen fuel cells, batteries, and electric motors and machines. Each project involves a range of collaborators including industry partners, universities and research organisations. Grants through the ATI Programme have also been provided to develop aircraft gas turbine engines, which have included work packages to test synthetic fuels or biofuels. We have not been able to isolate the cost of this element of research within large projects, so have not included it in the figures set out above.
In order to explore the potential for zero-carbon emission flight, the Government also provided a £15m grant to the ATI-led FlyZero project. This in-depth research study, which was completed in March 2022, found green liquid hydrogen offers the greatest potential to power future zero-carbon emission aircraft.
To kickstart a domestic sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) industry, the Government has made £227m available, since 2014, to support the development of advanced fuel plants. This includes investing in 8 SAF plants through the Green Fuels, Green Skies competition and more recently launching the £165m Advanced Fuels Fund. The Government has separately committed £12m to establish a UK SAF Clearing House to support the testing and certification of new SAF and £1m to run the first-ever passenger aircraft flight powered by 100% SAF, between the UK and the US, through the Net Zero Transatlantic Flight Fund. These investments are coupled with the £400m UK Government partnership with Breakthrough Energy Catalyst into emerging climate technologies, including SAF.
Asked by: Baroness Scott of Needham Market (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of Brexit on the UK's membership of the European Committee for Standardization; what discussions they have had with the British Standards Institution on the issue; and what were the outcomes of any such discussions.
Answered by Lord Duncan of Springbank
The European standards organisations (CEN, CENELEC and ETSI) are not EU bodies and the British Standards Institution (BSI) is independent from government. We are in regular contact with BSI and are supportive of the steps that they, as the UK’s national standards body, are taking to maintain the high level of influence of UK experts in the European standards organisations, as set out in the Memorandum of Understanding between Government and BSI.
BSI have informed the Department of their intention to retain their membership of the European standards organisations in line with the wishes of UK stakeholders.