Published:
The Heriot-Watt University-led Smart Control of Rural Renewable Energy and Storage (SCORRES) recently won in three categories at the Rushlight Awards held in London.
The SCORRES project won Rushlight's Resource Innovation and Water Management awards, as well as being recognised in the group research category.
For the past year, the SCORRES team has been trialling its cloud-based, micro-irrigation system on a farm in Tamil Nadu, India. Initial results show that the system has had a profound impact on the farm's use of natural resources: water use has reduced by up to 80 percent, and the crop yield doubled in some cases.
The SCORRES project is led by Professor Eddie Owens, director of Heriot-Watt's Energy Academy, and is funded by Innovate UK. Project partners include Auraventi Ltd, Scene Connect, Findhorn Foundation College, Auroville Consulting and Auroville Centre for Scientific Research
Professor Eddie Owens said: “Reducing water consumption and improving irrigation techniques in India is vital: currently, 600 million people are at high risk of surface water supply disruption.
“Our irrigation system reduced water and energy use by up to 80%, and in some of the trials the crop yield doubled, enabling farmers to grow bigger vegetables and fruits, faster.
“These results are extremely encouraging and have the potential to create a more resource efficient and sustainable future for the global agricultural sector.”
Clive Hall, Founder of the Rushlight Awards, commented: “Clean innovation is a key driver for growth across our whole economy, helping us find new ways to manage our environmental footprint, reduce costs and help put our businesses on a more sustainable and competitive footing.
“The progress that has been made over the last 11 years has been achieved in no small part through the successes of organisations such as those we are celebrating and promoting through the Awards.”
Now in their 11th year, the Rushlight Awards are a celebration and a promotion of new technology, innovation and best practice across the whole environment spectrum for organisations throughout UK, Ireland and internationally. Designed to highlight innovation, initiatives and the holistic environmental benefit of technologies that are most likely to or are already creating a real impact in the market.