Proven Energy Ltd
Winner of SMART Award
"The SMART Awards have been instrumental in moving our technology from a concept to commercial reality."
The Way They Were
In 1980 Proven Engineering Products Ltd was set up to offer consultancy on product development and manufacturing with particular emphasis on instrumentation and automatic control systems. At the same time, the company set about developing its own in-house products - one of which was wind turbines. The development of wind turbines was driven through the company's desire to offer products that contributed to environmental solutions and that also had long-term market potential.
After two years of part-time work on a vertical axis wind turbine design, it became evident to the company that the design had major strength and fatigue problems and would be too expensive to manufacture and commercially exploit.
The company explained:
"A radically different approach to wind turbine design was required that incorporated fail safe passive speed control and minimisation of destructive loads. Although we came up with a simple concept, that was based upon a unique flexible rotor system, it was clear that a practical implementation would not be easy, as the geometry, forces and aerodynamics were very complex."
Using the SMART Awards
The company were successful in obtaining a SMART Award in 1990 to undertake a feasibility study into the wind turbine concept based upon its innovative flexible rotor system design. Upon successful completion of the SMART project, it then secured follow on SMART II funding, which allowed construction and testing of a prototype of the Proven Rotor System. By 1992, the first units were on sale in small quantities.
Mr Gordon Proven the Managing Director of the company said: "The SMART Award allowed the wind turbine project to move from a part-time basis to a full-time activity and the progress made was rapid. Having completed our feasibility study, continuation SMART II funding was then in place enabling us to develop and test a final working prototype of our system."
The Effect of the SMART Awards
Proven have now gone on to design and manufacture a range of four sizes of wind turbine, all using the original flexible rotor system developed through the assistance of the SMART Awards. The technology has demonstrated its toughness and integrity by running in both hurricanes and typhoons and the company is now regarded as one of the world leaders in small wind turbine design and manufacture and has over 1000 machines in operation globally. It now employs 28 people in its new manufacturing plant in Ayrshire and this is anticipated to rise considerably over the next few years as world demand for renewable energy accelerates.
Mr Proven explained that: "Without doubt the SMART Awards have been instrumental in moving our technology from a concept to commercial reality. We cannot rest on our laurels and the need to continually expand and innovate upon our products portfolio is ever important. We are using the experience gained over 15 years and together with the help of a further SMART Award, are now investigating the feasibility of a new type of cross-flow turbine with inherent fail-safe speed and power regulation. This will meet the needs for integrated wind power solutions in the emerging urban and building markets.
Contact Details
Proven Energy Ltd
Wardhead Park
Stewarton Managing Director
Ayrshire
KA3 5LH
Contact: Mr Gordon Proven
Tel: 01560 485570
Fax: 01560 485580
E-mail:
info@provenenergy.com
Website:
www.provenenergy.com
Smarter Scotland 
Scottish Enterprise 