Engineering news
Shell is committed to addressing the twin challenge of reducing carbon emissions while meeting the growing global population’s rising demand for energy. Since 2008, we have invested $2.2billion in developing alternative energies, carbon capture and storage and other CO2 related research and development.
However, we also recognise that big businesses don’t have all the answers – and that fledging companies can help fast track innovative answers to global problems.
To help SMEs make the leap from drawing board to commercialisation, we launched Shell Springboard – a nationwide search for the UK’s most promising low-carbon innovation.
Since 2005, we have awarded £2.58million to 71 companies, and this year a further £330,000 is up for grabs for forward-thinking and commercially viable low-carbon business ideas – on a ‘no strings attached’ basis.
We’re calling on the UK’s boldest start-ups to apply by 5pm on Friday 13 December 2013 for the chance to take part. 24 businesses will be shortlisted in the New Year, and will compete for cash prizes at the three regional finals in Oxford, Manchester and Edinburgh. The programme culminates with a showpiece national final in London in May 2014, where an expert panel of judges from enterprise, academia and the low carbon space will put the finalists through their paces.
We’re proud to support the UK’s innovative pool of SMEs, which are not only driving job creation – responsible for two thirds of new employment in an average year according to a recent University of Nottingham study – but are uniquely well placed to capitalize on the low-carbon opportunity. Small businesses already account for 90 per cent of the UK’s £120 billion low-carbon sector, but these ambitious enterprises are also pursuing a slice of a global market which the Green Alliance forecasts will be worth £4 trillion by 2015. Indeed, research by Shell Springboard and the Carbon Trust published in May 2013 found low-carbon SMEs are almost twice as likely to have export customers as peers in other industries.
Previous winners exemplify this spark and ambition, and we’re extremely proud of what they have gone on to achieve.
Last year’s winner, Vantage Power, was awarded £40,000 for its innovative hybrid powertrain technology which can be retrofitted to double-decker buses across the UK. While the bus industry is keen to reduce diesel consumption, current hybrid engines designed for new buses can incur substantial costs, and many only offer significant savings over long-distance journeys. Vantage Power’s hybrid system offers a cost efficient way to reduce fuel consumption by £20,000 a year and help buses operating in stop-start traffic in towns cut emissions by 40 per cent.
Cella Energy is a fantastic example of a domestic business expanding into international markets. Since winning £40,000 for its innovative hydrogen storage technology in 2011, Cella Energy has attracted further investment from a wide variety of investors including NASA, allowing them to open a new laboratory at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida. With several new patents filed, the technology has progressed and Cella hopes to begin full scale field testing in 2014. Just this week, the company received an additional £600,000 government grant to pioneer a hydrogen/electric hybrid transport solution.
Shell Springboard is a celebration of the huge creative potential that UK SMEs represent. We’re looking forward to helping the next generation of low-carbon technology entrepreneurs take the next step.
To follow in the footsteps of companies like Vantage Power and Cella Energy, visit www.shellspringboard.org/applications and apply before 5pm on Friday, 13th December 2013. All applicants must be based in the UK, be categorised as an SME by the European definition and have been in business for at least three months.
For more details, contact the Shell Springboard team on 0870 850 7085, or Jordan Bickerton on 0207 544 3141.