The purpose of the Saltire Prize is to promote transformational technologies that help unlock the marine renewable energy potential in Scotland, helping to achieve Scotland's renewable energy carbon reduction targets.
The Scottish Government has created the opportunity to award one of the biggest international innovation prizes in history through its plans for the Saltire Prize. The Saltire Prize is a £10 million challenge prize for technological advances in wave and tidal energy.
The Saltire Prize fulfils the commitment from the Scottish Government, set out in the 2007 SNP manifesto, to support emerging technologies that can contribute to sustainable power generation. The manifesto refers to the Saltire Prize as " an opportunity for Scottish and international scientists to design and develop the answers we need to take forward these vital technologies and deliver workable commercial scale generators around Scotland's shores.
The Saltire Prize is inspired by other great innovation prizes of the 20 th Century including the Ansari X Prize which led to the first private spacecraft launch, and more recently the Virgin Earth Challenge which has challenged scientists from across the world to come up with ways to remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.
The Saltire Prize will:
- Be designed to advance marine renewable technology
- Lead to leap-frog technology for Scottish, European and world benefit
- Be open to applications from teams across the world, encouraging European and global collaboration
- Be demonstrated in Scottish waters
The Scottish Government takes the problem of climate change seriously and believes that the use of a prize structure is a novel, yet effective, way in which a Government can incentivise scientists and businesses across the world to actively find solutions to this problem.
Promoting the development and deployment of renewable energy is a key aspect of meeting the Scottish Government's purpose of "promoting sustainable economic growth in Scotland" and the Government's ambitions are set out comprehensively in the 2008 consultation document "Making Scotland a Leader in Green Energy - Draft Framework for the development and deployment of renewables in Scotland." Renewable energy will also support the Scottish Government's proposals for an ambitious Climate Change bill which includes setting a challenging statutory target of reducing Scotland's emissions by 80% by 2050.
The wealth of natural resources with vast renewables potential which Scotland enjoys is immense, including:
- 25% of Europe's off-shore wind power
- 25% of Europe's tidal power
- 10% of Europe's wave power
It is estimated that there are 21.5 Gigawatts (GW) of commercial marine energy capacity that could be harnessed from the waters around Scotland.