On the 26th of January 2024, the first ever International Day of Clean Energy will be observed. The day was declared by the United Nations (UN) General Assembly to raise awareness and mobilise action for a just and inclusive transition to clean energy for the benefit of people and the planet.

One of the key tenants of fighting the climate crisis, which continues to cause irreversible damages to the earth’s ecosystem, is being more energy efficient. According to the UN, to prevent warming beyond 1.5°C – the threshold for some of the most terrible climate change impacts – we need to reduce emissions by 7.6% every year from now until 2030. 

Clean energy production also intersects with other facets of human life. The lack of reliable power hinders education, healthcare, and economic growth. As it stands, about 675 million people do not have access to reliable power sources, 4 in 5 of which are in Sub-Sarahan Africa. As a result, developing regions often use heavily polluting fossil fuels for their daily life, perpetuating the state of poverty they already live in. 

Global existential issues, such as climate change, require global unified approaches to confront them — which is what the International Day of Clean Energy reminds us of. In Scotland, we can also use the day to look back and celebrate the efforts made in the clean energy and renewables sector. 

Scotland’s Renewables Effort in Recent Years

Renewable energy production in Scotland quadrupled between 2007 and 2020, then increased 9.8% in 2021, and a whopping 28.1% in 2022, with no intention of slowing down in coming years. 

While 2023’s energy generation had decreased due to less wind and rain compared to 2022, renewable energy capacity increased 10% between 2022 according to the latest Scottish government figures in September of 2023.

Last year, Scotland’s energy consumption increased compared to 2020-2021, which the government says is largely caused by post-pandemic societal shifts. Despite this, overall consumption is 18.2% lower than the 2005-2007 baseline. In addition, the energy usage in Scotland is also four times cleaner than London, even in the most densely populated areas. 

Renewable electricity generation is now equivalent to around 97% of Scotland’s gross electricity consumption, according to Scottish Renewables. The biggest contributor to this being wind, harnessed by both onshore and offshore wind turbine farms. 

To celebrate the efforts made in Scotland, we listed some of the most innovative and important movers and shakers in the renewables field.

Scotland’s Clean Energy Game Changers

1. Mocean Energy

Founded in 2015, Mocean Energy’s principal technology is able to harness energy from natural waves and tides, and can be deployed along coastlines.

According to the Aberdeen Renewable Energy Group, around 21.5GW of wave energy could be generated from Scottish waters every year, and Scotland already produces around 10% of the total tidal and wave energy of all of Europe.

Last year, the Edinburgh- and Aberdeen-based company saw two major cash injections. The first was £3.2 million by the EU-backed EuropeWave programme, in order to create and launch a 250KW wave machine in Orkney as early as 2025. 

The second investment was for £2.7 million from a number of investors like Scottish Enterprise, Equity Gap, and the University of Edinburgh’s venture investment fund. This money was put towards the commercialisation of its technology.

2. Snugg

This Edinburgh-based company, founded in 2022, has developed an online tool that analyses properties to create personalised energy efficiency improvement plans. Statistics show that 40% of the UK’s carbon dioxide emissions come from residential homes, and 47% of homes in Edinburgh have received a ‘C’ or below on the energy performance certificates (EPC) rating system. 

According to Snugg, by improving the energy efficiency of Edinburgh residential homes alone, the city could potentially save 250,000 tonnes of carbon annually, which is enough to power over roughly 54,300 commuter cars per year. 

Recently, the company secured nearly £2 million in funding from the UK government to help develop their Green Home Hub. This is a user-friendly platform that effectively assesses which improvements are most suitable for a customer’s home. The hub will provide cost and savings analysis, as well as pointing homeowners to relevant financial support, to maximise overall savings while staying green.

3. PawPrint

PawPrint, another Edinburgh-based company, works by asking users a series of lifestyle questions, which enables them to compare their carbon footprint – or ‘pawprints’ – across sections such as ‘Home’, ‘Diet’, or ‘Travel’. Users — typically employees at a company that uses PawPrint — can compare their own carbon footprint with others and are incentivised with rewards to reduce their environmental impact.

The company is used in many significant businesses across the UK, like Royal London, innocent, CGI, and the Scottish unicorn Skyscanner. According to Skyscanner, in just the first day alone of using the app, employees took over 400 individual actions to reduce their carbon footprints, saving 9.1 tonnes of CO2.

Founded in 2019 by Christian Arno, the app aims to empower individuals to fight climate change on an individual level. 

“I wanted to build a ‘vehicle’ that could empower people to do their bit to fight climate change,” said Arno, speaking with DIGIT after the app first launched. 

“It’s also about bringing people together in this, whether it’s’ people at work, in their local community or wherever else.”

4. Trojan Energy

Founded in 2016, Aberdeen-based Trojan Energy looked to solve the issue of EV ownership for the roughly nine million UK households without access to a private driveway, while at the same time, maintaining the aesthetic of Britain’s streets and pavements. 

Their charging points sit flush with pavements, and each charging system has up to 15 charge points and are each 22 kilowatt capable. 

Recently, the company raised a whopping £26 million investment boost led by the Scottish National Investment Bank with a £18m follow-on investment, as well as £8m from growth capital investor BGF. Existing investors include Scottish Enterprise, Equity Gap, Alba Equity, and Social Investment Scotland.

“Trojan will be firmly on track to become one of the biggest providers of on-street EV charging in the UK, continuing our work as the world’s largest ‘clutter-free’ on-street charging solution,” said Ian Mackenzie, CEO of Trojan Energy. 

5. Space Aye

Based in Scotland’s “satellite city” of Glasgow, Space Aye specialises in merging IoT (Internet of Things) data with real-time satellite imagery. As earth observation satellite numbers grow the frequency of images will increase, meaning cost decreases and increased possibilities. 

One of the key ways Earth observation can mitigate climate change is through accurate reporting of greenhouse gas emissions in sectors like oil, gas, and construction. As it stands, these numbers are compiled using national statistics, but independent measurements could promote transparency and align emissions reporting with real-world conditions. 

In December 2021, Chris Newlands, Space Aye’s founder, was named 4th in the world’s top 10 space entrepreneurs. He was beaten only by the likes of Richard Branson, Elon Musk, and Jeff Bezos. According to a report, the global space market is estimated to be worth over $1.1 trillion (£863 billion) by 2030.

6. Continuum Industries

Continuum Industries is an Edinburgh-based company behind a tool called Optioneer, an AI-powered infrastructure development platform. It was created to help to accelerate the global clean energy transition by supporting infrastructure developers to improve workplace efficiency, while minimising impact on the environment and communities.

With the platform, energy companies can better visualise, analyse, and assess routing options for power lines, onshore and offshore cables, and pipelines for hydrogen, water, and CO2.

The company recently landed a Series A worth over £8 million, bringing its total funding to date to about £12.7m.

7. Hypervine

This Glasgow-based company turns construction site activities into measurable site metrics. By combining data captured from satellites, Hypervine provides end-to-end site data that aims to bring predictability to site activities, creating improvements in efficiencies in time, money and carbon emissions.

Notably, the company has partnered with Scottish Water, offering artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain technology to increase efficiencies in Scotland’s water infrastructure throughout a six-year framework.

Paul Duddy, CEO and founder of Hypervine, said: “Digitising infrastructure, construction and facility maintenance industries through blockchain technologies will yield significant improvements across the sector that will have wide ranging positive economic and social economic impacts for both private and public sectors.”

This comes on the backdrop of construction and our built environment accounting for 39% of global greenhouse gas emissions, according to a report. 

8. Ecometrica

Ecometrica, an Edinburgh-headquartered global ESG and sustainability software firm, was founded in 2008 and claims to be one of the world’s top sustainability brands. It offers climate accounting and reporting solutions, allowing companies to comply with the latest legislation. 

The company helps businesses calculate their greenhouse gas emissions and identify climate risks, by combining satellite Earth observation data with local information and business intelligence. 

Last year, the company was acquired by EHS (Environment, Health, and Safety) and ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) software provider EcoOnline in an effort to bolster its presence in the ESG market. “The combined entity will have an unrivalled depth and breadth of service offerings on health, safety, and ESG to bring the best-in-class sustainability reporting to the EcoOnline product suite,” said Dr Richard Tipper MBE, chairman and co-founder of Ecometrica. 

9. Intelligent Growth Solutions (IGS)

This Edinburgh-based company is an international agritech innovator delivering vertical farming solutions. This enables people to grow tasty, nutritious, additive-free produce for the consumer using economically viable and environmentally sustainable methods.

Perhaps one of the most well known and consequential contributors to the climate crisis is deforestation. As the human population grows, and the demand for food with it, large farms taking up larger swaths of land are not a sustainable path forward. Agriculture is directly responsible for up to 8.5% of all greenhouse gas emissions with a further 14.5% coming from land use change 

Intelligent Growth Solutions recently raised £22.5 million in a Series C round to support significant global expansion as the business deploys its vertical farming technology to customers worldwide. 

10. Topolytics

Topolytics is an Edinburgh-based data analytics firm that works with a range of organisations, to help monitor and track the movement of waste in real-time, enhancing transparency and efficiency. The company is acknowledged by Cleantech Group, IDC and SAP as a leading analytics player in the €2 billion (~£1.7 billion) ‘waste tech’ sector.

Last year, the company landed a £1.5 million funding round, which was being used to expand the reach of WasteMap® and further grow the business with new and renewed licences through the year.

The company looks to redefine how the ‘E’ in ESG is measured. According to them, it is dominated by measures of carbon emissions, and less about material use and waste. This has left a blank space in ESG reporting where data and metrics on waste and recycling could be. 

International Day of Clean Energy 2024: Moving to a Cleaner, Greener World

Looking at some of the efforts being made in Scotland towards creating a greener future, we can appreciate the creativity required in building clean energy solutions. While its easy to celebrate what we have in Scotland, this day is also an opportunity to recognise the discrepancies around the world in access to clean energy sources. Even though the global situation is improving,  the world is not on track to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG7), which aims to ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all by 2030, according to the UN.

Use this International Day of Clean Energy to make your energy usage more efficient, spread awareness on the dangers of climate change, and mobilise movements towards a greener future.