Scotland’s Energy Minister Fergus Ewing has launched a competition run by the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) that offers free Environmental Technology Verification (ETV) to successful technology developers.

In his keynote address at the All-Energy conference in Glasgow earlier this week, Ewing announced that the winner of the competition will be taken through the full ETV process, and provided with a Statement of Verification for their technology.

As one of the European Commission’s initiatives under the Eco-Innovation Action Plan, EU ETV is a new verification programme to help environmental technology companies enter the market quicker by independently verifying the specific performance claims of their new technology.

"We meet a lot of new technology developers at EMEC, and we think this scheme could really help give their products visibility and credibility. By proving that environmental benefit and innovation claims are real, we believe ETV will help them get investment, and get them to market sooner" said Dave Wakefield, EMEC’s ETV manager. "If you have an innovative environmental technology, and want it to stand out from the crowd, this competition could be your launchpad."

As a UKAS accredited Verification Body, EMEC can verify the specific performance claim of an environmental technology.

Whilst the EU ETV pilot scheme provides developers with some funding assistance towards the cost of a verification, EMEC is aiming to provide a developer with funding for the whole verification process (excluding the costs of any testing required).

The EMEC-ETV competition is seeking proposals from SME developers who can show that their technology is innovative and has environmental added-value, and whose performance characteristics are not fully covered by existing regulations and standards.

The competition is open to all companies worldwide, providing technologies fall into one of the two following categories:

  • Energy technologies: Production of heat and power from renewable sources of energy (e.g. biomass, geothermic, wave, tidal and wind); Reuse of energy from waste (e.g. 3rd generation biofuels and combustion technologies); Energy efficiency technologies (e.g. micro-turbines, hydrogen and fuel cells, heat pumps, CHP, logistics).
  • Water treatment & monitoring technologies: Monitoring of water quality for microbial and chemical contaminants (e.g. test kits, probes, analysers); Treatment of drinking water for microbial and chemical contaminants (e.g. filtration, chemical disinfection, advanced oxidisation); Treatment of wastewater for microbial and chemical contaminants (e.g. separation techniques, biological treatment, electromechanical methods, small-scale treatment systems for sparsely populated areas).

The technology for verification must also meet all of the following requirements:

  • It presents sufficient level of technological innovation in terms of design, raw materials involved, production process, use, recyclability or final disposal, when compared with relevant alternatives;
  • It is ready for commercialisation or is already commercially available (for this competition the technology must be at TRL level 6 or higher);
  • It shows potential to meet user needs and to perform in line with legal requirements.

There are two stages to the competition. Stage 1 requires interested companies to submit an application form outlining the technology to allow assessment for suitability to the scheme; Stage 2 requires a detailed proposal to be submitted.

The deadline for submitting an application for Stage 1 of the competition is 5 June 2015.

For an application form and terms and conditions, interested applicants should send an email to etv@emec.org.uk with ‘ETV Competition’ as the email subject. Alternatively, Tel +44 (0)1856 852060 for further information.