University projects from Edinburgh and Aberdeen have each received a £75,000 funding boost from Scottish Enterprise to support renewable energy – and it is branding them examples of the “brilliant” ideas coming out of academic institutions in Scotland.
A project from the University of Edinburgh that is developing heat exchange technology called Seawarm for marine environments has received support alongside the University of Aberdeen’s venture known as LCDC that is developing a direct current circuit-breaker system for renewable energy projects.
Professor Christopher McDermott of the School of Geosciences at the University of Edinburgh has secured the funding to be used to develop technology to harness thermal energy from the sea that is expected to provide sustainable heating for coastal communities and businesses. The project team will work with Edinburgh Innovations, the University’s commercialisation service, to evaluate and protect the technology.
He said: “We are grateful for the funding from Scottish Enterprise, which will allow us to test at sites facilitated by Lar Housing Trust and potentially others in the Firth of Forth. Coastal communities make up 41 per cent of Scotland’s population, so we hope to be able to meet growing demand for resilient, reliable, and renewable energy sources. Our invention has the potential to decarbonise heat, helping us on our way to net zero.
Edinburgh and Aberdeen uni projects net collective £150k to support renewable energy | The Scotsman
