THE devastating wildfires that swept across California in 2019 pushed a Scots ex-pat back home on a mission to tackle climate change. Now he wants his renewables start-up to power a revolution in the way Scotland does business.
Bobby Kane says too little has changed since he left Silicon Glen for the US decades ago. Apeing the Silicon Valley nickname given to San Francisco over for its burgeoning tech sector in the 1970s, Silicon Glen was the name applied to Scotland’s Central Belt electronics manufacturing boom. That title is seldom heard now as many of the operations have moved overseas or shifted away from manufacturing.
When Hewlett-Packard announced the closure of the Apollo Computer plant in Livingston where Kane worked in 1990, he transferred to the US and worked in several locations before settling in California. He moved again after watching the 2019 fires from his garden in Sacramento and has now co-founded Autonomous iOt in his home town Airdrie with brother Tony.
From its Chapelhall base, the company’s one-stop shop develops and makes cutting-edge eco-powered lighting.
Each unit is run on its own solar and wind generator and has individual power storage, meaning none are connected to the National Grid and can be mounted with security cameras. Councils and fish farms are amongst the company’s clients and Kane’s team is now working on next-gen products and eyeing the opportunities COP26 could bring. It’s the result of intense research and development and a partnership with the University of Strathclyde that allows students to come aboard.
It’s a response not only to climate change but to the untapped potential Kane says exists in Scotland. Manufacturing accounts for more than 169,000 jobs and more than half of Scotland’s international exports, but he says too many concepts born in Scotland are brought to life in overseas factories.
“Since I left, there are a lot more cars on the road, a lot more people in fancy cars, but things haven’t really changed. We’ve got the knowledge here, we’ve got the universities, we’ve got great ideas, but you have to go abroad to get things made. I don’t want that any more, I’d like to keep everything here.”
Kane's mission coincides with a major national push to drive up manufacturing. The Scottish Government has committed £75 million to the National Manufacturing Institute for Scotland (NMIS), which aims to make the county a “global leader” in advanced work.
Meanwhile, there’s an effort to grow the already successful space sector, promote science, technology, engineering and maths subjects in schools and it’s hoped that Renfrewshire Council’s planned Advanced Manufacturing Innovation District Scotland, where NMIS will be located, will “act as a magnet for advanced manufacturing companies to locate and invest in Scotland”, the Scottish Government says.
Renfrewshire Council is amongst Kane’s clients and the father-of-two expects his firm to expand within the next year, perhaps as a result of the showcase offered by COP26. The Glasgow summit will draw delegations from around the world seeking low-carbon solutions and Kane says his lighting fits that bill. “COP26 promote what Scottish companies can offer. This is a big deal, it’ll give us exposure,” he says.
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The Californian fires impacted on him “big time,” he adds. “That’s first-hand climate change in your face,” he says. “I stood in my garden and the air was thick with smoke.”
The blazes were driven by 100mph-plus winds compared by one meteorologist to “an atmospheric hairdryer”. In southern parts of the state, the National Weather Service created a new purple flag warning that was one level higher than the standard red limit.
“When you see a wildlife fire you think it’s smoke from burning wood but it’s not, it’s all the toxins from houses that have burnt down,” Kane says. “What got to me was that it was getting worse and worse. People died in their cars trying to escape. I thought, ‘there must be something I can do with the experience I’ve got to give something to help this’.
“It’s about waking everybody up to see not just climate change, which is huge, but to ask why do we have to go to the other side of the world to do things? Things are still slow, we need to do them really, really quickly. There needs to be an acceleration.”
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