Horsham company tackling climate change scoops top award for engineering innovation

The company – leading clean energy developer Ceres Power – has been named as the winner of the Royal Academy of Engineering MacRobert Award, the UK’s longest-running and most coveted prize for engineering innovation.

The award celebrates the engineering heroes behind the UK’s world-changing technologies. It recognises outstanding innovation, tangible societal benefit and proven commercial success.

Past winners include JCB and Jaguar Land Rover – however, Ceres is one of the first climate-related companies to be recognised.

The company was crowned as the winner at a gala awards dinner hosted at The Londoner Hotel in Leicester Square.

Ceres’ innovative solid oxide technology was hailed by the award judges as a huge breakthrough in the clean energy revolution, alongside the flexibility of Ceres’ fuel cell technology, capable of generating power from a range of different fuels with greater efficiency than alternatives currently in the market.

Judges’ chairman Professor Sir Richard Friend said: “Ceres technology electrolysers show the lowest conversion losses that I have come across, they are spectacularly efficient. That is a huge gamechanger for hydrogen generation. It’s very exciting.”

Named in honour of Lady Rachel MacRobert, the annual award has honoured the engineers behind the UK’s most exciting engineering innovations since 1969.

Caroline Hargrove, chief technology officer at Ceres, said: “Ceres is delighted to have been named as this year’s winner of the MacRobert Award. We are proud to be a leading example of British technology driving progress on tackling climate change across the globe through our international partnerships and licensing model.

“Our focus on pushing the frontiers of performance in our technology is supporting our global partners to decarbonise at scale and pace. We are galvanised by the goal of a net-zero future and we must keep pushing the boundaries of innovation to achieve this.

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“I would like to thank the Royal Academy of Engineering for its work in shining a light on UK success stories across engineering, as well as the entire Ceres team for their dedication, drive and creativity that has brought us to this point.”

Ceres is based in Harwood Road, Horsham.