Dr Faisal Ghani was awarded the RSE Enterprise Fellowship in spring 2020, with an exciting business proposition, Solaris Kit, he benefited from an equity-free package of support worth up to £100,000 each to aid in the commercialisation the project.

SolarisKit is a low-cost, flat-packable solar thermal collector, capable of converting sunlight directly into heat in the form of hot water. In the first instance, Faisal aims to take his technology to Rwanda, where currently up to 40% of household income is spent on energy, with 70% going towards heating hot water. It is hoped that SolarisKit will significantly improve the lives of millions of people in the developing world by providing clean, affordable energy, whilst also reducing carbon emissions.

Most recently, Solaris Kit was accepted onto the new accelerator programme at the Michelin Scotland Innovation Parc (MSIP) in Dundee. The company will establish a new assembly line to build the flat-packable solar thermal collectors. By 2025, aiming to install more than 90,000 collectors, annually saving over 27 million kilograms of carbon emissions.

"Our plan is to setup a new manufacturing assembly line by the end of January to produce an initial run of 100 flat-packable solar thermal units destined for a trial project we are undertaking in Rwanda. To prepare for this, we are currently investing in equipment and production tooling. In our first year of manufacture, we aim to employ an initial eight staff, doubling the size of the workforce over the following two years.”

Institution: Heriot-Watt University

Funded by: RSE

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