To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (1) what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of grant assistance given by his Department to developers of marine renewables technology in the last five years; (291698)

In the last five years, the Department’s funding to developers of marine renewable energy technology has primarily been delivered through the Technology Strategy Board (TSB). Support for collaborative R and D provided by the TSB to developers of wave and tidal renewable energy technologies in the last five years is as follows:

BIS also supports developers indirectly through investments via the Energy Technologies Institute and the research councils:

In January the ETI announced £11 million for ReDAPT, to demonstrate the viability of a 1 MW tidal turbine, and expects to announce further marine projects with a potential value of £10 million during the next quarter.

To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what mechanisms are in place to monitor the use by developers of marine renewables technology of financial assistance provided by his Department in the last five years. (292024)

The Department’s support to developers of marine renewable energy technology is delivered through its delivery partners.

Tidal energy projects funded by the Technology Strategy Board are monitored by a dedicated monitoring officer who is technically qualified to work in this specialist area and monitoring is carried out against:

Stated project outputs, deliverables and milestones.

The original and revised project plans, and

Budgeted expenditure versus total grant.

Projects are monitored monthly with formal reports furnished on a quarterly basis.

Projects supported by the Energy Technologies Institute involve:

Monthly reporting of progress (financial and non financial)

Payment against deliverables only (not effort) with clear acceptance criteria

Variations approved only as contract variation

Projects reviewed at significant key stages (stage gates; go/no go) checking technology, financial progress and integrity of business case, and

Annual reports on project progress.