WES’ innovative Jillian Henderson is a finalist at the YPGE Awards 2022

Wave Energy Scotland’s Research Engineer, Jillian Henderson, has been shortlisted for the ‘Innovator Award’ at the Scottish Renewables Young Professionals Green Energy Awards 2022.

The Young Professionals Green Energy Awards provides a platform to celebrate the people who are at the heart of net-zero growth, who’ll be designing, planning, maintaining and operating the renewable energy projects of the future. The awards recognise those who have pioneering new ideas, who have achieved beyond expectations, and those who have the drive and ambition to transform the future of the renewable energy industry.

The Innovator category recognises people who are leading the way by providing solutions, developing new techniques, or challenging convention with new project ideas.

Jillian joined WES in 2017 after working as a design engineer developing fridges to store vaccines off-grid in developing countries. With a Masters in Renewable Energy, her role as a Research Engineer at WES is focussed on structured innovation and how concepts are created in wave energy. This involves developing metrics that are used to assess wave energy technologies along the technology development pathway. Jillian’s work has focused on looking forward to future trends and novel materials to identify the largest drivers in the cost and power of wave energy technologies.

Through a project named SEAWEED, Jillian has built a tool which allows funders, technology developers and researchers to identify commercially attractive and technically achievable wave energy scenarios. This tool can be used to support private and public investors to inform strategy for future funding calls, and technology developers and researchers in identifying new avenues of innovation.

Jillian’s manager, Jonathan Hodges, WES’ Senior Innovation Engineer said:

 “Jillian’s work has given us the tools to think about the challenges and opportunities of wave technology and innovation in a completely unique way. She applies excellent technical skills but it’s her energy, creativity and persistence that have brought us to this position. Using her effective networking skills, Jillian is pushing forwards to identify and exploit the most promising areas of opportunity for further step-change improvement in wave energy technology. I’m delighted to see her being recognised for it.”

Commenting on her nomination, Jillian Henderson, Research Engineer at WES said:

 “I'm over the moon to have been selected as a finalist for the Innovator Award. Working at WES has meant being involved in the exciting world of wave energy technologies and it's been amazing to see how the sector has progressed in the last five years. Thinking of the next generation of wave energy technologies is a fantastic space for innovation and I'm grateful this work is being recognized at such a prestigious event.”

Winners will be announced at the Young Professionals Green Energy Awards on Thursday 28 April in Glasgow.

For further information on the awards, and the full list of finalists, visit:  https://www.scottishrenewables.com/events/166-ypgea22/categories