The 80 entrants for the 2018 Young Professionals Green Energy Awards has been narrowed down to a 36 person shortlist.
The awards were open to those who’ve worked in the Scottish renewable energy industry for five years or less.
The 36 finalists have been broken down into ten categories.
Jenny Hogan, deputy chief executive of Scottish Renewables, said: “I’m absolutely blown away by the level of talent shown in the nominations submitted.
“The sheer quality and quantity of nominations has proven once again that our sector is leading in skill and innovation.
“Those shortlisted should be extremely proud of their achievements to date, and we hope that being a finalist in this competition will encourage them to go on to even bigger and better things in their future careers.”
First launched in 2015, this year’s awards will take place at Glasgow Science Centre on 24 May 2018.
Some of the shortlisted candidates are:
- Former serviceman John Freeburn retrained as a wind turbine technician and currently works for installation contractors Windhoist in Ayrshire.
- James Williamson, Graduate Trainee Mechanical Engineer at SSE, refurbished a 5ft valve at Quoich Dam in the Highlands, and in doing so saved the company over £250,000 on replacement costs.
- Whizzkid Gavin Kitching, a 17-year-old analyst for ScottishPower Energy Networks, manages “vast quantities of data” on the company’s UK smart meter roll-out.
- Merlinda Andoni, a PhD student at Heriot-Watt University, is an expert in blockchain and has delivered tutorials to the Scottish Government, which is potentially exploring a community energy exchange demonstrator using the IT technology.
- Miles Franklin, Lead Engineer at Gravitricity, designed the innovative energy storage system, which was awarded £650,000 by Innovate UK in February.
