Scene co-director Vijay Bhopal is the first recipient of the Entrepreneur Award at the inaugural Scottish Renewables Young Professionals Green Energy Awards.
Vijay was among 11 winners at a glittering ceremony in Glasgow on May 28.
Vijay is one of the founders of Scene Consulting, a Social Enterprise focused on growing the community energy sector through project consultancy and research.
Set up in 2011, Scene have carried out detailed research and project development work in the community energy sector for a variety of public and private clients and studied and published on technological, social and economic aspects of community energy across the globe.
Vijay said today, somewhat bleary eyed: 'It didn't occur to me to thank anybody at the time - it was past 8pm and the red wine had taken effect. Therefore, I'd like to now say thanks to everyone at Scene and also the staff and residents of the ECCI, especially Andy and Ed who have been solid supporters of ours since 2011.'
Jillian McKenna, Director of Marketing at Scottish Renewables, said: “We were overwhelmed by the number and quality of entries to the awards, which are in their first year.
“Our winners perfectly demonstrate the vital contribution young professionals are making to the success of renewable energy. People like Dr Eve Bird show how academia plays such a huge role in what is still a young industry, while talented lawyers and consultants like Stephanie Mill and Vijay Bhopal, who won the Professional and Entrepreneur Awards respectively, shows how crucial professional support is to ensuring the success of projects.”
The full list of winners is:
• Achiever Award: Dr Eve Bird, Celtic Renewables
• Academic Award: Sandya Abrar, University of Edinburgh
• Campaigner Award: Gail Watt and Rajini Sokhi, Women in Renewable Energy Scotland
• Entrepreneur Award: Vijay Bhopal, Scene Consulting
• Innovator Award: Joe Berrisford, ScottishPower Renewbales
• Leader Award: Úna Brosnan, Atkins Offshore Renewables
• Pioneer Award: Peter Marshall, Muirhall Energy
• Professional Award: Stephanie Mill, Shepherd and Wedderburn LLP
• Judges Award: Jackie Sayer, Highland Council
This post was first published by the Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Innovation at http://edinburghcentre.org/news/Vijay-Bhopal-Entrepreneur-Award