To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform how much funding his Department has allocated for research into microgeneration technologies between September 2007 and the end of the financial year 2007-08; and if he will make a statement. (167135)

I have been asked to reply.

The Technology Strategy Board, an executive non-departmental public body of DIUS, is proposing to invest in microgeneration and solar photovoltaic technology activities under the forthcoming Low Carbon Energy technologies call within the TSB’s Collaborative R and D programme which was launched 19 December 2007 and has an indicative budget of £10 million. In addition to microgeneration/solar photovoltaic areas, priorities include Carbon Abatement Technologies, Hydrogen and Fuel cells, Intelligent Grid Management and Bioenergy. Funding has not been earmarked for each specific technology and the appropriate budget will be allocated following a competition in which projects submitted within these priorities will be assessed and ranked against the Technology Strategy Board criteria. Also in this period the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council has awarded a £6.3 million grant for a consortium to investigate Photovoltaic Materials for the 21^st Century.