Boost for green energy research

The institute will look for ways to reduce fossil fuel dependence

A centre to develop technologies to reduce global carbon emissions is to be created in Leicestershire.

The government is investing £550m in the Energy Technologies Institute (ETI) at Loughborough University.

Innovation Secretary John Denham announced the location of the centre, which is expected to attract £1bn in investment over 10 years, on Thursday.

He said the ETI would work with business leaders to cut CO2 emissions and deliver more efficient energy.

'Global clean energy'

The universities of Birmingham and Nottingham joined up with Loughborough to bid for the institute as the Midlands consortium. All three will also be involved in the project.

Mr Denham said: "The institute will deliver solutions to help make the energy in our homes and businesses safer, cheaper and more sustainable for the future.

"It will do so by bringing together skills and expertise from the public sector, businesses large and small and the wider research community to transform our carbon footprint as quickly as possible.

"This will help to establish the UK as one of the leaders in global clean energy development and deployment."

The centre will call on businesses to come up with ideas to guarantee future energy supplies for the UK.

Business Secretary John Hutton said: "The establishment of this new institute at Loughborough now gives us a truly strategic focus on research and development of low carbon energy technologies, helping make the UK a world-leader in this area."

The ETI is expected to be fully operational by 2008.