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Renewable revolution

Duncan Botting, Managing Director of ITI Energy, outlines the future for the renewable energy sector and the markets where they hope to make significant progress

In the current financial climate with the rising costs of energy, the need to minimise energy consumption and encourage all renewable energy sources is greater than ever. The need for low-carbon solutions that deliver security of supply and energy efficiency will require a different approach to research, development and deployment across the energy supply chain.

ITI Scotland has been tasked with priming the innovation supply chain, converting good ideas into wealth creation across three global market sectors: digital media and communications; energy and life sciences. It is ITI Energy’s mission to identify and develop new innovative energy-enabling technologies to tackle the growing issues around low carbon energy supply and demand optimisation.

Despite the Government’s policies on increasing the use of renewable energies, there is still a lack of support for the development of energy technologies and the focus remains on conventional systems. The high capital cost of introducing technologies such as wind turbines is also a barrier to implementation and financial options for energy projects are inadequate.

With this in mind, ITI Energy has invested in the development of a wind turbine access system – Orangutan® – which will dramatically improve the efficiency of maintenance operations on wind turbines. Designed by Aberdeen-based Oreada Limited and initially developed for use onshore, the technology has the potential to be used in the construction of turbines as well as offshore applications.

A new low-cost, high-energy rechargeable battery has also been developed by ITI Energy based on using Lithium-ion (Li-on) technologies. This has the potential to deliver 150 percent higher energy capacity, giving longer periods between recharge. Initially targeted to the mobile phone and laptop markets it offers opportunities in other market sectors. On a similar theme ITI Energy has successfully licensed innovative battery management technology for use in the electric vehicle/hybrid electric vehicle (EV/HEV) market.

These R&D programmes were identified through a Foresighting process where ITI Energy engages and consults with industry and academia to identify technology development opportunities. Coordinated and managed by experienced ITI staff, the information is gathered by an in-depth analysis of market data, expert opinion and technology opportunity and used to identify areas of potential. The route from publishing a Foresighting Report to launching a new R&D programme is judged on a set of core criteria, including the opportunity to create protectable intellectual property (IP) and the ability to license to an existing or new business with identifiable routes to market.

Sustainable transport and alternative fuels is another key area for ITI Energy. A new programme is about to be launched with respect to macro algae and its capability to contribute to the portfolio of generation and lack of competition with food chains. ITI Energy is also exploring the EV/HEV market further to identify more opportunities for development. Although the volume of vehicles is still relatively low, there are a number of well-established markets within the industry providing additional impetus for technological improvements and cost savings.

In terms of the future for renewables, the rise of intelligent energy technologies and processes is driving a real revolution that is reshaping the way generation, power networks, storage and end-user environment will operate in the future. The intelligent house/business of the future will need to integrate with the new active distribution grid that will be developed over the next decades. Large offshore wind, marine (wave, tidal, biofuels, etc), hydro, solar, geothermal, small wind, micro-generation etc. will all develop at different timescales, each providing a piece of the low-carbon supply of energy and reducing the use of fossil fuels.

With the UK Government committed to reducing 60 percent of our carbon emissions by 2050, we will also need to increase the amount of power we generate from renewable sources to help combat climate change and further secure our energy supplies. This can only be done through a diverse energy mix and I think intelligent energy technologies hold great promise for ITI Energy and the future of the sector as a whole.

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