Bright sparks required to invent new street lighting system

Invitation issued to Scottish SMEs to revolutionise how street lighting is delivered in the future

With Scotland’s local authorities spending millions of pounds a year on electricity for their street lighting, a competition has been launched to find a Scottish company that can come up with a device to make street lighting more energy efficient and save money at the same time.

Whilst much is being done by councils across Scotland to reduce their energy consumption by installing energy efficient LED lamps, the Scottish Futures Trust (SFT) in partnership with Scottish Enterprise and Zero Waste Scotland are calling on bright home-grown SMEs to get their thinking caps on and come up with a novel way to further reduce energy use.

As this is a research and development project to support SMEs, successful applicants will receive a feasibility grant of £10k to cover overheads. The winning invention will need to meet all the demands of the low carbon agenda, from reduced energy consumption and running costs to re-using or recycling waste materials that the successful solution may generate.

Viv Cockburn, low carbon director at SFT explained: “An SFT study indicated that an investment of £300m in LED lighting could deliver up to £900m of avoided costs over a 20 year period. And last year we launched our Street Lighting Toolkit aimed at helping local authorities look at different ways of paying for LED lanterns that will in fact pay for themselves in a matter years.

“Building upon that work, we’re now calling out to all Scottish SMEs involved and interested in this area of work to come up with a cost-effective and pioneering solution to achieve even greater savings, and be part of an exciting programme to revolutionise how street lighting will be delivered in the future.”

SMEs have until 3 October 2014 to submit their proposals via this website.