£150,000 of funding awarded by the Scottish Enterprise will go towards two university projects focusing on green energy and renewables. 

The High Growth Spin Out funding is directed at products and companies formed from university work and aims to support new research and technology to strengthen Scotland’s innovative economy.

Jane Martin managing director of innovation and investment at Scottish Enterprise said: “Our high growth spin out programme is proven to help leading academics to turn innovative ideas into business ventures by providing investment and advice to start-up, commercialise and scale.

An innovative project from the University of Edinburgh that is developing heat exchange technology for marine environments called Seawarm has received support alongside the University of Aberdeen’s project LDC that is developing a direct current circuit breaker system for renewable energy projects. 

Professor Christoperh McDermmott of the School of Geosciences at the University of Edinburgh has secured £75,000 towards his project developing technology to harness thermal energy from the sea to provide sustainable heating for coastal communities. 

“Coastal communities make up 41% of Scotland’s population, so we hope to be able to meet growing demand for resilient, reliable, and renewable energy sources,” Prof McDermmott said. “Our invention has the potential to decarbonise heat, helping us on our way to net zero.” 

Edinburgh Innovations, the University’s commercialisation service, will work with the project to evaluate and protect the technology. 

Unlocking the full potential of Scotland’s renewable energy resources is at the heart of a project led by the University of Aberdeen, which has received £75,000 to support developing technology for use in Direct Current (DC) transmission and distribution electrical power systems. 

The LC Direct Current Circuit Breaker (LCDC CB) has been developed by Professor Dragan Jovcic from Aberdeen’s School of Engineering as an essential component of DC systems, which are seen as key to integrating Scotland’s plentiful yet dispersed and remote renewable energy sources, replacing traditional AC-based systems. 

Laboratory tests on the LCDC CB prototypes showed promising results in the EU Horizon 2020 project PROMOTioN, contrasting previous DC Circuit Breakers which are generally too slow and costly. 

“I am grateful to Scottish Enterprise for this support, which will enable us to kick start the development of a company and open up routes to commercialisation for the development of this exciting technology which has the potential to help Scotland meet its net zero ambitions,” Prof Jovcic said. 

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Royal Society Entrepreneur in Residence Paddy Collins is working with Prof Jovcic to develop a spin out company for commercialisation of LCDC CB hoping to contribute to the wider push for electrification in many industries, as well as enabling large-scale green hydrogen generation. 

“These spin outs highlight the brilliant ideas coming out of Scottish universities that will help solve global environmental issues and build a greener economy and I wish the teams in Aberdeen and Edinburgh every success as they innovate in the net zero space,” Martin said.

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