SolarisKit Limited will locate at MSIP from January and establish a new assembly line at MSIP to build its solar thermal collectors providing affordable hot water systems and clean energy for millions of people living in geographies termed ‘the global south’ – sub-Saharan Africa, North Africa, Central America and SE Asia.

Promoted as a low carbon campus, MSIP is a joint venture between Michelin, Dundee City Council, Scottish Enterprise and the Scottish Government,  located on the site of the former Michelin Tyre Factory which closed its gates for the final time earlier this year. The world-class Innovation Parc in Dundee is a beacon for sustainable mobility and low carbon energy, that will drive growth and diversity in the Scottish economy while addressing the global climate emergency.

Faisal Ghani, founder and CEO of SolarisKit, said: “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 demonstrate both the environmental and socio-economic impact achieved from the supply of affordable clean energy.

“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.”

Assembled in 30 minutes, the SolarisKit solar collector can convert sunlight efficiently into hot water to meet the needs of most homes or businesses, with the potential to save energy costs of up to 70%. In most standard weather conditions, the SolarisKit is capable of heating water to temperatures of up to 50 degrees C, perfect for normal showering and laundry requirements.

Sunlight enters the collector through its transparent side panels and strikes the black, internal coil, which is then heated through solar radiation. Water is then circulated through the coil using a small pump, heated and stored in an insulated water tank for later use. Each solar collector can save approximately 300kgs of carbon emissions per year.

By 2025, SolarisKit aims to install over 90,000 collectors, annually saving over 27 million kilograms of carbon emissions.

Greig Coull, CEO at MSIP, said: “SolarisKit is an exciting start-up company with huge growth potential. Its solar technology is another example of a new company contributing to and delivering towards ambitious climate change plans around the world, creating carbon neutral economic growth.

“SolarisKit not only fits well with the scope of the ambition at MSIP, its ethos of creating inclusive places for people to live very much matches our own. We believe in its mission to deliver affordable hot water systems and clean energy for those living in developing nations, and will support SolarisKit as much as we can.

“We were excited to welcome SolarisKit onto our first Accelerator Programme earlier this year, and today are pleased to soon welcome them as a tenant at MSIP.”

SolarisKit has just won Start-Up of the Year at the 2020 Solar & Storage Live Awards. Earlier this year, it secured around £250k of funding from Innovate UK, the United Kingdom’s innovation Agency through its Energy Catalyst 7 Programme and is a former winner of the Converge Impact Challenge. It has also received support from Royal Society of Edinburgh (Enterprise Fellowship), Scottish Enterprise and the EIT-Climate-KIC accelerator and is a recent winner of the Wild Card category of the  Scottish Edge 16 Awards.