Energy Innovation Agency marks three years of driving sustainability

Businesses across Greater Manchester are cutting their carbon footprints thanks to accelerated access to green technologies, spearheaded by the Energy Innovation Agency.

Founded with a mission to drive decarbonisation through deployment of innovative solutions, the Agency has become a beacon of progress in the green technology sector.

To date, the Agency has helped secure more than £6M of innovation funding, supporting more than 200 innovators to develop solutions that reduce energy costs and cut carbon for 100 businesses in the region across diverse sectors, forging vital industry partnerships, creating jobs, attracting investment and delivering significant carbon reductions.

As the Agency marks the end of its third year, it celebrates a remarkable journey of innovation and growth that has transformed the city-region into a testbed for cutting-edge green technologies.

Over the past three years, the Agency’s key highlights include:

• Facilitating the rollout of an energy-saving boiler additive across up to 1.8M homes with Procure Plus, with the potential to save 4,860,000 tonnes of Co2 and up to 15% energy for tenants on energy costs over a 10-year product lifecycle.

• Working with the Diocese of Salford to deploy a vacuum glazing innovation in a school that improves energy efficiency to reduce heating costs and prevent summer overheating, removing the need for an air conditioning solution; minimising external noise to create a quieter and more focused learning environment; and contributing to stakeholder sustainability goals by reducing carbon footprint.

• Collaborating with Rubix Facilities Management, the UK’s largest facilities management provider, to introduce carbon and cost saving innovative solutions, across commercial and logistics estates within their strategic customer base across GM and beyond.

• Supporting decarbonisation activity in Trafford Park, the single largest carbon emitter across the city-region, by engaging and partnering with Trafford Council, GMCA and the Growth Company, to ensure businesses reach the right support at the right time.

• Contributing to the decarbonisation of Stakehill Business Park, delivering a practical business support toolkit and strategic support roadmap that empowers 65 businesses to reduce emissions, cut energy costs and enhance competitiveness, with the potential to achieve a 77% reduction in CO2 emissions from 2023 levels by 2038, aligning with Greater Manchester's climate framework. 

• Supporting HalioGen Power, pioneers of no-membrane flow batteries for large-scale decarbonisation, to secure €3m of innovation funding, develop their go-to-market strategy, and accelerate the commercialisation of their batteries within the UK.

• Supporting 23 SMEs as part of the University of Salford’s Future Homes project with funding and testing opportunities in Energy House 2.0 and enabling four businesses to bring new products to market over the past 12 months.

With a growing network of innovators, the Agency continues to support and connect them with opportunities, shortening the journey from discovery to deployment and facilitating the rapid scaling of energy innovations, accelerating innovation commercialisation and decarbonisation.

As it looks to the future, the Energy Innovation Agency is committed to strengthening Greater Manchester’s position as a leader in clean energy and supporting its carbon neutral ambitions, and to expanding activities to other city-regions across the UK, and even internationally.

Marking the start of an exciting next chapter, the Agency was recently awarded Best Approach to Decarbonisation at the Northern Housing Awards. This accolade reflects the team's efforts in championing the deployment of effective low-carbon innovations that reduce energy bills for consumers and cut carbon emissions and highlights the potential for a sustainable future driven by innovation and collaboration.