SETsquared: Exeter's energy research to benefit from £13M investment for Cornwall

The University of Exeter's world-class renewable energy research is set to receive a further boost as a result of £13 million of investment from the Government’s flagship Regional Growth Fund (RGF).

The investment is the result of an innovative bid submitted by the Local Enterprise Partnership to stimulate the economy of Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly and create thousands of new jobs. It will include funding infrastructure projects in the marine, mineral, renewable energy and aerospace industries which will unlock private sector investment. Through RGF funding, Geothermal Engineering Ltd will build a geothermal plant near Redruth in Cornwall and establish a pioneering research centre with the University of Exeter. This will enable the University of Exeter and Geothermal Engineering Ltd to work together to develop the emerging field of geothermal energy.

The University’s Marine Renewable Energy group will conduct new research activities in Cornwall, including industrial developments in marine energy through the RGF investment.The University of Exeter’s renewable energy research is focused on the Cornwall Campus and spans energy policy, marine renewable energy, bio-fuels, electrical power and networks, wind, photo-voltaic and thermal technologies. Work at the Cornwall Campus has led to world leading research in marine renewable energy and provided significant support to South West companies through industrial projects. Jointly, Cornwall Council and Exeter developed the European-funded MERIFIC project to tackle barriers to marine energy.

Professor Frances Wall, Head of the University of Exeter’s Camborne School of Mines said: “This great success for Geothermal Engineering Ltd and for marine renewable energy in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly could lead to exciting research opportunities for the University of Exeter. We are working with businesses to develop Cornwall as a world-leading centre for renewable energy and clean technologies, so this is very welcome news.”

Almost 500 bids for funding were submitted from across the UK, with the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly proposal one of the 119 successful bids. The £13 million RGF investment will be used to attract additional funding to create a £43 million programme which will directly create or safeguard 3,200 jobs and indirectly create 2,100 jobs in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.

Carleen Kelemen, Director of the Convergence Partnership Office for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, said, “One of the core aims of the Combined Universities in Cornwall (CUC) has been to strengthen links between academia and business to stimulate new ideas and create solid commercial benefits.

"This announcement of valuable research and work between undertaken by a CUC partner and a well established Cornish company furthers this aim and underpins the significant European investment that has already gone into Cornwall's economy."

Chris Pomfret, Chair of the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP), which applied for the funding, said “This is great news for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. Investment of this scale is hard to come by in the current economic climate and this reflects the quality of the bid which has been designed to meet the short and long term needs of the private sector. This funding is projected to attract further investments of £30 million and will create over 4,000 jobs at a time when it is desperately needed.”

The University of Exeter and University College Falmouth are founding partners in the Combined Universities in Cornwall (CUC), a unique collaboration between six universities and colleges to promote regional economic regeneration through Higher Education, funded mainly by the European Union (Objective One and Convergence), the South West Regional Development Agency and the Higher Education Funding Council for England, with support from Cornwall Council.