The public funding provided through PowerPath’s Innovate UK (IUK) grant offers the best option for enabling the project to deliver a fully operational prototype, thereby achieving faster commercialisation and generating benefits for local communities sooner.
Without public funding, PowerPath cannot go ahead or produce the desired outcomes. As a collaborative international project, it requires partners from different continents to collaborate closely to succeed, which is easier to achieve with centralised public funding. In addition, because the communities involved have limited access to energy resources, they are unlikely to participate in the demonstration and upskilling phases without the resources offered by the IUK grant.
Given the wider economic state in the targeted region, it is crucial to proceed with the developmental work within the PowerPath project as soon as possible. Therefore, should there be a need for extra resources, the partners are willing to inject resources of their own to support any additional tasks required to make the project successful.
Once the fully working prototype has been created to Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 8, when the system is complete and qualified, private impact investors will be contacted to assist with implementation. At this point, the earlier public funding will have helped reduce the investment risk, ensuring that the R&D budget is maximised.
See here for more on how PowerPath needs public funding: Grant Funding: Accelerating PowerPath to Commercialisation