The U.K.'s Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) on Wednesday announced it would double the budget of its innovation program over the next five years while cutting overall costs by 22% by 20202. The Department is raising innovation program spending to £500 million, an increase it said would "strengthen the future security of supply, reduce the costs of decarbonization and boost industrial and research capabilities." While the innovation program boost will provide seed funding for new renewable energy technologies and smart grids, it will support development of small modular nuclear reactors, an area in which the government hopes to position the U.K. as a global leader. Indeed, the Conservative government's budget review also includes funding for "an ambitious nuclear research program that will revive the U.K.'s nuclear expertise." As the government embraces state-of-the-art nuclear technology, it is also spending more than £11 billion on the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) and its continuing work to clean up ageing nuclear sites. U.K. solar website Solar ...Den vollständigen Artikel lesen ...