1025. The Review has heard from many voices- including members of the Council for Science and Technology and multiple roundtables with representatives from academies, industry, and trade unions - that the UK can do more to optimise growth in net zero R&D and technology. The Energy Systems Catapult for example told us that "...many UK innovators face systemic barriers preventing products, services and business models getting to market at scale".726
1026. Much of the progress being made in innovation and research into net zero technologies remains at low technology readiness levels (TRLs) (see Figure 6.2 below).727 Technologies remaining at a low readiness level - i.e. being further away from being ready to use - is problematic given R&D and technology need to be deployed at a commercial scale to help achieve net zero ambitions.
1027. There is a gap in the stage that investment occurs. PwC outlined in their Net Zero Future50 report that: "Investment has been skewed towards the "low-hanging fruit" of well-proven technologies, leaving a series of sectors underfunded, where there are commercially viable approaches with high carbon abatement potential.728 Many stakeholders, including venture capitalists and private equity firms and attendees at a roundtable hosted by the Royal Society, highlighted a gap in investment between technologies at the very early stages of development, and those which are mature, late-stage technologies. This gap is known as the "valley of death".729 It needs to be addressed: the International Energy Agency, in their 2020 Special Report on Clean Energy Innovation, warned that "40% of emission reductions rely on technologies not yet commercially deployed on a mass-market scale."730
| Maturity | Area |
| Success -TRL9 achieved | • Battery-electric passenger cars • Hydrogen/fuel cell passenger cars • Wind power • Solar PV • Large scale (>1GW) nuclear power • Electricity HVDC inter-connectors and HV transmission systems |
| Ripe for Development - Currently at c. TRL7 | • Carbon capture, utilisation and storage • Battery-electric and/or hydrogen fuel cells for heavy vehicles, buses and trains • Bio-energy with carbon capture & storage • Small, modular nuclear power • Domestic heat pumps in substantial quantities • Flow batteries • Direct reduced iron |
| More work Required - Lower TRL's | • Domestic retrofit insulation & heating in quantity • Direct air capture of CO2 • Compressed air, liquid air, and gravity energy storage • Nuclear fusion • Space-based solar power |
Figure 6.2 - Institution of Mechanical Engineers 175 (2022), 'Engineering a Net Zero Energy System'
1028. The stakeholders we spoke to said that the following areas must be addressed to enable R&D to move at the appropriate scale and pace:
1. The prioritisation and direction of R&D and technology development for net zero needs to be more clear
2. More technologies need to be scaled up to more mature commercial products
3. Regulators should be agile enough to match the pace of innovation
Understanding net zero R&D and technology priorities
1029. The UK needs to understand which technologies provide the UK with greatest strategic advantage in terms of their current and potential decarbonising capabilities and drive economic growth between now and 2050. This was raised by the Industrial Decarbonisation Research and Innovation Centre (IDRIC) and echoed by attendees at a R&D and technology roundtable. They advised that the UK should ensure it is identifying, nurturing, and supporting sectors in which we already have strengths and those of strategic importance with potential for future high returns, while ensuring a full toolkit of decarbonising options is available to industry.
1030. Government is taking action to understand these priorities. BEIS's R&D prioritisation for the Net Zero Innovation Portfolio, worth £1 billion over the 2021-2025 spending review period, was set up based on evidence from the Energy Innovation Needs Assessments (EINAs). Their use for prioritisation was tailored to technical and commercialisation needs for 2019-2024. Additionally, we understand that Government intends to undertake analyses to determine which technologies should be defined as priorities for decarbonisation and economic growth. This will help to determine how the Government can best support UK science and technology for net zero.
1031. This Review advises that government should consider updating the Energy Innovation Needs Assessments ahead of the Government developing the post-2025 net zero innovation portfolio, to reflect the fast rate of change in the clean technology sector. This would help determine priority technologies to accelerate decarbonisation and economic growth. The outcomes of this and the Government's priority technologies work should be used to inform the below roadmap recommendations.