The solar will provide electricity directly to London City Airport. Image: Daniel Chapman/Flickr
A floating solar development to be located in London’s Royal Docks set to provide renewable energy directly to London City Airport has won £40,000.
This comes as part of the Mayor’s Resilience Fund, which provided the funding to 10 London-based initiatives.
Renewable Connections’ floating solar is to also provide electricity to other local customers, with the company established by Armstrong Capital Management to help drive decarbonisation of the UK economy.
Other winners of the fund – which aims to support the development of innovative products and services to address socially impactful issues facing London – include Aubin, a door-to-door journey planner and companion app and Loss in Translation, a peer-led grief activism project.
The winners now have until October to further develop their solutions using the funding. They were selected from a pool of 35 finalists, which were chosen in May and each awarded £10,000 to refine their solutions. The teams were given access to a programme of expert advice and training, covering topics such as user-centered design, open data and pitching support.
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: “The pandemic has resulted in us all having the most turbulent, challenging experiences of our lives but the winners of the Resilience Fund are a shining light of the great ingenuity and positivity of business in London."
A floating solar project on London's Queen Elizabeth II reservoir is already in operation, having been developed as part of a partnership between Thames Water, Ennoviga Solar and Lightsource BP.
Earlier this month, Khan and Solar Energy UK launched a new solar skills project to develop the solar industry in the capital through job creation and education.