Who is funding UK’s battery and fuel cell drive?

John Bromley, our head of Clean Energy strategy was invited by The House of Lords Science and Technology Committee to provide evidence on how the UK can attract the finance necessary to deliver batteries and fuel cells to help achieve its net-zero ambitions.

The evidence session formed part of a wider inquiry exploring the role of batteries and fuel cells in achieving net-zero. The Science and Technology Committee has previously heard from researchers about the journey from idea in the lab to product, and from scale-up to market and expressed the need to secure finance at each stage.

Alongside a panel of experts, John provided insight into how investments map onto these different stages, and how the UK can attract the finance necessary to deliver batteries and fuel cells to help achieve its net-zero ambitions. Some of the questions included:

What makes Legal & General excited about doing direct investment in this space
In relation to battery gigafactories, what more needs to be done to attract investment in order for the UK to succeed in its ambitions and needs
How important we think government policies are for signalling support for investment decisions about specific technologies
In terms of investor confidence, what role the public Green Investment Bank plays, if the new UK Infrastructure Bank will be effective and, what role the British Business Bank could play now in doing things and investing in a way that it is not currently doing?

Watch the full discussion on UK Gov Parliament TV here or download the transcript here.