Championing green technologies across continents

Professor Tadhg O'Donovan was appointed Chief Scientist in 2023. A leading figure in Green Technology, he has published more than 80 research papers and leads the Institute of Mechanical, Process and Energy Engineering at Heriot-Watt's School of Engineering and Physical Sciences and is the Honorary Education Secretary for Energy Institute – Middle East.

Heriot-Watt University, with campuses in very different climates, is uniquely positioned to develop, demonstrate, and champion Green Technology supporting a transition to a sustainable future. Green Technology can be the bridge between the available renewable energy resources and the service level needs of society. With our campuses in Malaysia, the UAE and UK, we are ideally positioned to develop technologies and support CleanTech industry to operate in dramatically different environments.

CleanTech is needed to deliver thermal comfort in the form of water and space heating or cooling depending on the local climate. It is supporting an energy transition in the construction and operation of our built environment and provides support for logistical supply chains, transport, and transit. And the challenge of achieving a greener future is not just technological, but needs sustainable finance, policy, and social initiatives to reduce energy demand and environmental impact.

The Heriot-Watt Climate Hub, hosted on the Dubai campus during COP28, showcased innovative enterprises as part of a CleanTech Exhibition. Ranging from solar energy (Soltropy, SolarisKit and LONGi) to sustainable fisheries (SmarTrawl), food security (Crover and IGS) and sustainable construction (Kenoteq) the exhibition demonstrated the potential of Green Technology to supparaport the energy transition and highlighted the efficacy of partnership between universities and enterprise towards a greener future.

The role of Chief Scientist is focused on Green Technology and will develop the legacy of the Climate Hub. It will also help to deliver on our 10 institutional commitments to Global Environmental Sustainability, supporting our global community to take personal and collective action to assist in delivering on Sustainable Development Goals.

In recent years, we have developed facilities to support sustainability research. We have developed Renewable Energy Test Sites in the UK and UAE to support research efforts to characterise and optimise solar energy conversion and energy storage devices. These facilities are complementary, solar thermal technology in the UAE is developed for applications in more northern latitudes; we are developing technology to optimise thermal energy conversion and storage for UK markets where a heat energy forms a large proportion of our carbon footprint. The site also addresses local challenges in the Middle East, helping to predict energy yield over the lifetime of solar installations, optimising cleaning schedules and minimising degradation – all to minimise the Levelised Cost of Renewable Energy and a just transition. Importantly however, the renewable energy generated by the solar test site now forms part of an independent smart micro-grid and is offsetting energy demands on campus.

This is the beginning of a living laboratory where Green Technology is being used to bridge the gap between renewable energy resources and service level needs of our community. We are data rich; our weather stations, combined with sophisticated energy monitoring of solar energy systems and our building management systems have inspired over 20 active research questions across our schools and campuses. Researchers are developing digital twins of our campuses which will lead to optimised and smart control of our energy use and minimise our environmental impact.

Finally, we are also developing a digital hub to demonstrate the impact of Green Technology for enterprise to showcase the positive impact of technology, students can access real-time data feeds to support their learning and our research community can continue to develop solutions of the future.