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SHOW PREVIEW


“UK standards for future building are among the most demanding in the world, which is driving industry into a frenzy of innovation”


about startups we’ve supported trying to fi gure where they’re going to get the resources to go the long mile to commercialization. “There’s a natural connection


between the level we take projects to and what CWR is trying to achieve in its search for gigaton CO2


savings that are


commercially viable today if you can release the fi nancing. “We’re hoping Creating Climate


Wealth will help us understand what people working in private capital think needs to happen for these innovations to make it to the mainstream – and what we need to do in terms of preparing some of these new products and services for the market. “Just about every area covered at the summit is something the TSB is working on, so it represents a real opportunity to talk to industry, innovators, policy people, and to capital markets, about all these areas and help link what we’re doing to what other players are doing.” Miller says: “Our interest is particularly that a lot of the topics, such as smart city systems and transportation, dovetail with our programs, so we can join the conversation between entrepreneurs, policy people,


industrialists and the fi nance people. “I’d like to see some


real action plans as a result. Now is the time to make some of these ideas real in the marketplace.”


Bang for your buck Miller is determined the TSB plays an important role in bringing clean technologies to


market. He says: “What we’ve tried to do is focus on areas where we can win. One of the key questions we ask is, if you’ve got an idea, what is the potential size of the global market for that idea?


“Because there are lots and lots of


really cool clean technologies that can be very successful as niche players. But we have to look at bang for our buck.” Low-carbon vehicles, energy


effi ciency, power generation in the built environment and emerging renewable technologies are all the focus of TSB – and therefore government – attention and fi nancial support. And all are of interest to the War Room. Miller says: “Because of government action, standards in the UK for future building are either the most demanding in the world or among the most demanding, which is driving industry into a frenzy of innovation. “And wave and tidal is a real opportunity for the UK – as you can see from the fact that on behalf of the government we’re investing substantially in all of these off shore renewables. “And on low-carbon vehicles, we’re seeing a lot of inwards investment into the UK on the back of the work we’re doing around components and systems, and a lot of work helping industry restructure and reinvent its supply chain. “New players have to come


into place, new relationships have


to be built, people have to fi gure out how to connect the diff erent parts of the story together into the new system.”


But perhaps the biggest challenge for government is planning,


executing and


fi nding private sector investment for the


national smart grid that will


be required to connect tidal generators to photovoltaic panels on homes to electric cars charging in driveways. This is a huge undertaking,


eff ectively developing a new national infrastructure network, on a par with the emergence of the national grid in the 1920s. Miller says: “We’re looking at how the grid of the future will work. The UK has benefi ted from an extremely successful national grid over a number of years, one that is much more robust than in many other countries. “But we’re going to have a much


richer mix of energy generation, including household-based renewables such as PV on the roof, small-scale wind for communities, off shore – a whole mix with many more nodes in the network that are suppliers as well as consumers. “A lot of people are scratching their heads worrying about this one at the moment. We cannot do the things we’ve said we’re going to do – we can’t even cope with the things we’ve already set in motion – unless we have a smart grid. The real trick, the real innovation and creativity, is how we get there from here. How do we evolve a smarter grid while keeping the lights on?” Miller – like CWR – is looking to the


future, a topic he’s keen to discuss in London. He says: “I’d like to get a sense of how the long term looks from the capital market’s point of view. What needs to happen? Because we can go back to the research councils and talk about what needs to be coming out of universities so we can be ready for interesting things to start happening in fi ve or 10 years’ time.” ||||


CREATING CLIMATE WEALTH


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