Helping Britain to develop, fund, and market a ‘green-tech’ export-orientated economy

Britain must commercialise its low carbon innovations to deliver both national economic benefits and climate solutions for the world.

Specifically, the UK must develop ‘green-tech’ products and services to help meet net-zero, end the environmental crisis … and boost our national and regional economy, export performance, advanced manufacturing capabilities, research base, and sustainability skills training.

The good news is that a new template from a region with a strong historical industrial reputation could help. It comes from RedCAT – a hub which recently created 300 jobs while converting £2 million of pilot government capital funding into private sector financial outputs worth £11.5 million … and still growing.

To generate valuable economic outputs and much-needed environmental gains, RedCAT embeds technology experts in selected green-tech businesses to help accelerate their R&D to full commercialisation – resulting in refined products that can be manufactured and sold at competitive prices to solve problems around the world.

How this works in practice is described below with case study examples.

RedCAT (the Red Rose County’s Centre for Advanced Technology) was developed in Lancashire with widespread support, including from Lancashire County Council, to help large and small companies, plus entrepreneurial start-ups, to turn post-prototype ideas into ‘launch ready’ solutions designed to attack opportunities in global markets worth literally billions of pounds.

RedCAT’s concept of ‘fractional support’ from a ‘community of highly-experienced experts’ business-that minded innovators can access when they need high-level advice, information and guidance is a long-term alternative to support that often ends abruptly when a prototype is produced.

To create successful outputs, RedCAT experts provide bespoke: – technology viability assessments; market and competitor analysis; and commercialisation support … while also identifying: -demonstrator opportunities; plus future manufacturers and supply chain members. As a support service, RedCAT also levers in government finance to raise private sector funding.

As Chamber and RedCAT CEO Miranda Barker OBE explains, it is now generally acknowledged that a daunting commercial leap across “the Valley of Death” stops many green-tech innovators moving from the CAD drawing board to major world markets. RedCAT addresses these issues.
Miranda also disagrees with media suggestions that innovation is a ‘black hole’ which wastes government funding and contributes little to UK plc.

Effective commercialisation is the key that stops innovation becoming a black hole – allowing tech instead to reach the pot of real productive gold at the end of the rainbow! This is why government funding focused on creating supply chains and jobs is vital from the get-go, she says.

“It is also why we believe that carefully targeted expert support makes a huge difference in achieving real economic and climate benefits, and why we have made that an ongoing, core, long-term RedCAT’s speciality,” she adds.

Commercially-minded East Lancashire Chamber of Commerce’s recent developments include the RedCAT Centre, a purpose-designed innovation hub at the Chamber’s Accrington headquarters.

The centre provides hot-desking, conference, and one-to-one consultation facilities that host drop-in sessions with support agencies such as the British Business Bank and Innovate UK.

The other side of the coin is Chamber Low Carbon which helps companies to become more energy-efficient, transition to renewable energy sources, and realise net-zero’s business benefits.

“Net-zero is at the heart of everything we do,” Miranda stresses. “It is not a ‘nice-to-have’ bolt-on but a business essential,” she insists. “It runs through all we do at home and abroad.”

The Chamber’s environmental/business model is also being taken to wider domestic and overseas audiences. A team led by Miranda and Chamber Sustainability Director Stephen Sykes promoted regional and UK green-tech as an officially UNFCCC-recognised NGO at COP28’s Blue Zone in Dubai.

The Dubai team included Lancashire companies that brought home promising new international contacts and sales openings. Miranda is also working closely with the British Chamber of Commerce Azerbaijan to develop the British Chambers of Commerce’s COP29 offer for November 2024 and support Lancashire green-tech firms in their end-of-year mission.

RedCAT also acts as a UN Challenge posting platform, a development that resulted from taking Lancashire firms to the UN City in Copenhagen for a procurement summit that involved meeting every UN department.

Typical of the visionary companies supported by RedCAT is Organic Heat-Exchangers. O-Hx is a Thornton-based technology developer that received a £150,000 RedCAT grant to help create a working demonstration unit for its ‘cold energy’ storage innovation – EnergIvault – that could help to replace the 10% of worldwide electricity currently used for industrial cooling.

RedCAT introduced MD David Grundy and his O-Hx team to legal experts who helped to prepare the business for its next stage of investment – working closely with the British Business Bank among others. Another goal is identifying potential EnergIvault manufacturers in the Northwest. “RedCAT MD Stuart Thompson also reviewed our investment documents from a professional perspective,” David adds.

The O-Hx demonstrator was installed from conception to full operation within a potential customer sector business – Quotient Sciences; a pharmaceutical company at Alnwick in Northumberland – where it delivers real-world savings that can be seen by other target customers, while also generating serious sales enquiries and new contacts.

Another important introduction was to AMRC North West (Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre). AMRC is helping O-Hx to make its unique ice crystallisation process more efficient.

“We really appreciated the many relationships RedCAT has helped us to build made and their work to secure us support. Taking a concept to market successfully is a long, hard, slow slog. RedCAT knows that,” David explains. “As well as significant funding support, we valued their collegiate approach and continuous fully funded time and support from specialists.”

“Six months ago, our headache was selling our innovation. Now – with further RedCAT support – it is knowing how to manufacture enough units to service a potentially £6 billion world market. We are now sales-ready!”

Being able to collect waste plastic bottles and using them to 3D-print mini-turbines that gather lost and wasted watts from local waterways is a dream for many remote communities. Doing so for pennies or cents is a dream come true in parts of the world where poor access to finance and challenging geography are major barriers.

River Power Pod (RPP) has developed simple but sophisticated technology in Lancashire to capture the vital watts needed to light up classrooms in developing countries. Mini-turbines cast in durable metal can also recover power lost in industrial systems.

With technical support plus a £300,000 development grant from RedCAT, RPP developer Fern Flowing Power had AMRC’s help in creating and testing prototypes – and very importantly developing RPP models that can be produced on 3D printers.

RedCAT then paid for 3D printers to be sent to schools in Kenya where children and local communities now enthusiastically recycle plastic waste to print their own turbines – with non-metallic bearings!

RPP is also an example of how UK green-tech can contribute to UN Sustainable Development Goals while helping the UK to meet its commitments under the 2015 Paris Agreement (COP21).

Tiny amounts of energy can go a long way, explains the innovator behind RPP, Ged Heffernan, who has proved this principle by harnessing energy from fast-flowing British rivers in a new generation of ultra-low-cost turbines. “We don’t need to burn things to make them go forward,” he adds. “In fact, we can do amazing things with just 5W from extremely efficient green technologies.”