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UtILIty WEEK | 23rd - 29th May 2014 | 9 Interview C hoosing the teeth of an economic crisis as the starting point for a venture seeking to galvanise investment might seem like a questionable call. But the need for new, secure and low-carbon energy infrastructure was far from going away in 2007 when industry and government partnership the Energy Tech- nologies Institute (ETI) was launched. And the institute's remit to evaluate and demonstrate the commercial met- tle of renewable technologies remains valid. Now as the UK emerges from recession, the ETI's emphasis, according to chief executive David Clarke, is on security and cost. "We try to invest in the right thing at the right time," he says. So what are the right things at this time? Clarke picks out carbon capture and storage (CCS), biomass and nuclear as the chief cost-reining technologies. But a glance at ETI's investments in its nine areas of interest (see box, p10) show CCS and offshore wind projects tak- ing the lion's share of investment at about £50 million each, while the biomass programme has only £5 million and there is little or no nuclear investment. Is biomass really the poor relation? "Establishing biomass use is a long, slow burn," Clarke explains (and lays immediate claim to the pun). For nuclear, he says the ETI is advocating a wide-scale new-build programme based on large and small-scale plant that could be more than double the upper limit of government expectations. Clarke says the ETI has "wrestled with the long-term potential for UK-sourced, sustainable biomass". He says ETI-backed work by a consortium of leading academics and industry groups on short rotation coppice and heavy forestry has revealed "real opportunities. "How that plays out into the power industry – across logistics issues, transport, processes and optimum sites – will start to emerge from this work." At the time of writing the ETI has unveiled a competi- tion for commercial demonstration-stage investments in waste gasification technology for power production using domestic and commercial refuse. Clarke describes the 5-20MW waste-to-power plants as "much cleaner than anything before". Three companies have completed an ETI project to prove their designs and one will be chosen this summer to continue with ETI funding to commercial operation. "Biomass,' Clarke emphasises, "is not the poor relation." Meanwhile, new-build nuclear power has returned to UK politicians' menu. In 2007 Clarke says new nuclear "just wasn't going to happen". He now sees the govern- ment 16GW ambition as possibly under strength. "Our modelling suggests the UK benefits from going bigger than that – as much as 40GW," Clarke says. Citing the struggle faced by the developers of the planned Hinkley Point C nuclear plant in establishing funding, Clarke says the challenge will be how to implement ETI's grander programme with "limited supply chain capacity and, critically, limited capital". Availability of sites is also a possible major con- straint on nuclear new-build, and one that could bring a nuclear programme into conflict with CCS development, Clarke warns. "This year we kicked off a piece of work to look at the siting options and constraints not just for nuclear but also for new, big thermal power stations enabled for CCS as well." The conflict arises from the huge demand for coolant water that is characteristic of both nuclear power and CCS. Coastal sites are preferable for both technologies because of the access to high volumes of water and, for CCS, proximity to carbon dioxide storage sites offshore. The ETI's work on CCS has been extensive, with a strong focus on the storage segment, which is widely perceived as the greatest area of risk. And, along with carbon dioxide transportation, storage holds opportuni- ties for major cost reductions. The ETI has identified around 600 potential storage sites off the east and west coasts of Britain. Clarke says the ETI will, later this year, report on