A second round of capital funding – worth up to £25 million in total – is due to be launched on 5 November by Innovate, formerly known as the UK Technology Strategy Board.
This was confirmed at a ‘green Dragon’s Den’ event held at Heriot Watt university’s Energy Academy by Chris Bagley, Head of Energy at the Knowledge Transfer Network.
Companies including Royal Haskoning DHV, Logan Energy UK, Beran Instruments, Silver Hydro Ltd and the Orion Group were among those that attended the Heriot Watt Energy Academy ‘meet the experts’ session to build partnerships and to bid for funding from government.
Chris Capus, CEO of Heriot-Watt spin-out Hydrason Ltd, described how his company was employing wide-band sonar to help protect sub-sea cables and pipelines while, David Townsend founder of start-up company Town Rock Energy Ltd described the potential for geothermal energy extraction in Scotland.
Bagley told the Edinburgh conference of Scottish energy SME leaders: ”We are looking for high-quality funding proposals which offer to tackle the energy ‘trilemma’ of carbon-reduction, security of supply and cost-efficiencies for consumers.
“We welcome ideas for any sector and we’ll be holding regional ‘roadshows’ around the UK to help potential bidders. We offer funding to feasible energy projects – but we’ll also be looking at the ‘un-usual suspects’ as well.
Meanwhile, on 2 October 2014, the UK Department of Energy (DECC) will also announce details of its new £6 million heat networks demonstrator project. It is open to bids for a share of this fund to develop novel heating network technologies, possibly involving heat-pumps, waste-heat schemes, thermal storage and cooling technologies.
The deadline for submitting bids for a share of a £2 million funding pot to develop shale oil technologies closes on Wednesday, 17 September 2014.
The UK is one of only two nations in the EU which is encouraging shale oil exploration and development in a s sector which DECC estimates has potential market demand for £2 billion worth of steel and more than £1 billion worth of rig and drilling equipment.
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