The Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) says offshore wind will be a priority area for the bank until 2016, along with energy-from-waste generation, commercial and industrial waste processing, and non-domestic energy efficiency.

The UK also published its criteria for naming a headquarters for the bank, to be decided by March, and revealed it has received expressions of interest from more than 20 cities, including Edinburgh, London, Liverpool, Manchester and Brighton.

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