£330,000 available to fund low-carbon business ideas

A new round of project development prizes, worth up to £40,000 each, is being offered by Shell to UK-based SMEs with an innovative and commercially viable low-carbon business idea.


The offer is part of the annual Shell Springboard competition which is now in its eighth year and has already led to 62 businesses sharing over £2.25 million of development funding since 2005.

Launching the new competition, Shell UK’s Chairman, Graham van’t Hoff, said that with low carbon enterprise rising up the national agenda, there had never been a more exciting time for businesses in the sector. He agreed, however, that finding financial support to develop ideas remained ‘difficult to obtain’.

Past competition winners include Cella Energy, who have since secured multi-million dollar contracts with NASA; and Select Innovations, whose Enlight technology is designed to help local authorities keep street lights on by reducing power consumption by 45%.

Entries for the new competition, the fund for which totals £330,000, opened today (Sept 18) and closes on January 18, 2013. Applicants must by based in the UK; a SME, according to European definition and have been in business for at least three months.

edie staff

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