Green technology lights the way

Designing traffic lights to be more energy efficient may not seem the hardest thing to do. Change the energy-wasting incandescent bulbs for modern light sources and you're done, right? Not quite.

"We've reinvented the humble traffic light," says Matthew Vincent, deputy director of sales and marketing at Siemens Mobility Traffic Solutions. "Previously they used very energy-inefficient [50W] tungsten-halogen lights, which only have a lifespan of six months or so, which means you have lots of maintenance issues with people visiting site to replace them." The company replaced the bulbs with a cluster of modern LEDs, redesigned the electrical control systems from scratch and lowered the operating voltage from 240V to 48V.

The result is a new set of lights that uses less than a quarter of the electricity of standard traffic lights. There are around half a million tungsten-based traffic lights in operation around the UK and, considering the CO2 emissions saved by preventing fleets of vans driving around replacing blown tungsten lights, the cumulative benefits to the environment become apparent. Which is perhaps one of the reasons that the Siemens traffic lights won first prize this week in the energy and environment category of the inaugural iAwards.
Showcasing a shift-change

The iAwards, set up by the government's Business, Innovation and Skills department, are designed to help showcase British science and technology, in big and small companies: a Bafta-style award to give prominence to a field that is sometimes overlooked in the UK. Fighting it out for prizes in 10 categories, small startup firms were pitted directly against multinationals such as Unilever and Siemens.

And environment was a strong theme in the shortlist. "There is a huge amount of interest in sustainability and environment," says entrepreneur James Caan, chair of the iAwards judging panels and a star of BBC2's Dragon's Den. "We are seeing more and more people coming forward with business ideas, entrepreneurs developing that space. There is a shift-change in people recognising its value and importance."

At Solargorilla, which won the iAward for digital communication, chief executive Jerry Ranger says his company's invention is all about allowing people to use off-grid technology in everyday life.

The device has two solar panels, each the size of an A4 sheet. A proprietary circuit board stabilises the voltage coming in and a super-efficient battery stores the electrical power generated from the sun. In the northern hemisphere the Solargorilla will charge a standard laptop in around six hours or a mobile phone in under an hour. "We had a guy on Madagascar who ran a laptop for four weeks completely grid-free," says Ranger.

Other shortlisted companies included AMEE, a company aiming to track and connect the world's energy and consumption data, and map its environmental impact. AlertMe offered up a smart meter that it says could save consumers 25% of their energy bills, while the radical-looking QR5 wind turbine from Quiet Revolution is designed to fit discreetly to buildings, generating decentralised power in the urban environment. Diverse Energy had its PowerCube – a fuel cell that runs on ammonia and that could replace diesel generators to power mobile phone towers in developing countries – shortlisted for the "next big thing" category.

Paul Drayson, the UK science minister, and a technology-company entrepreneur himself with vaccine company Powderject, says that climate change is a massive market opportunity because the world has no choice but to respond to the problems. But, because it is such a new sector, there are many unknowns for small companies. "The industrial structures haven't settled down yet," he says. "In life sciences you have an established structure whereby a startup from university will form the biotech company and have a route to commercialisation, either through licensing or acquisition to a large pharmaceutical company. In clean tech, that route to market has not been well established. That's all being built and that what's makes this market area exciting."

And he says there is no better time for British companies to get moving on green technology. "We're coming out of a nasty recession; market shares change more rapidly at this stage in the economic cycle than any other time. It's the companies that are bold now and invest in new technologies that are going to win market share as the economy grows over the next five years."
Protect your investment

Building a company from scratch may not be the specific expertise of those coming up with ideas, but Drayson has some tips. Anyone thinking of starting up a business should ensure their technology idea is protected, he says. "You have patents and registered designs. Then go and talk to companies operating in that space; don't make the mistake of thinking you're unique, don't make the mistake of thinking you have no competition, you do."

For small business startups, even in the green technology space where Caan says specific investment funds are increasingly becoming available, would-be entrepreneurs also need to understand that the initial idea is only a part of the business. "The one thing I come across time and time again is that entrepreneurs believe the idea is 95% and execution is 5% and there lies the problem," says Caan. "Success lies in your ability to execute a journey – it is the development, patent, logistics, manufacturing, distribution, pricing, branding and marketing. People, for some reason, forget all those things."