Are you an ambitious business looking to grow or expand in the clean heat sector? We're looking for Scottish companies that work on heating or energy efficiency in buildings to take part in our 2025 accelerator programme.
The Scottish Enterprise Clean Heat Accelerator is an immersive five-month programme for small businesses and start-ups in Scotland that offer products and services related to clean heat and energy efficiency in buildings.
The accelerator is designed to help you to grow and scale your business and build valuable networks. It will help you to:
Understand demand
Raise your profile
Identify new opportunities
Now in its third year, the Clean Heat Accelerator has already supported dozens of businesses in scaling their solutions and securing new opportunities.
Programme benefits
Build your network
Meet potential customers, supply chain companies, partners, peers, and investors.
Develop your skills and knowledge
Attend online workshops and in-person events to build your business skills and sector expertise.
Create a plan for growth
Develop a practical action plan to scale your business.
Get expert guidance
Receive one-to-one mentoring from industry experts, plus advice on funding and support from Scottish Enterprise.
Who can apply
The accelerator will support up to 15 ambitious businesses that work in areas related to clean heat or energy efficiency solutions for buildings.
This includes technologies such as:
Heat pumps
Thermal storage
Heat networks
Solar thermal
Biomass
Insulation
Deep retrofit
Sensors
Metering
Smart controls
Energy-efficient heating
Energy-efficient building solutions
The programme is open to small businesses and start-ups at various stages of growth, from early-stage innovators to scaling enterprises.
Technology developers, manufacturers, installers, and contractors are all welcome to apply.
You must be based in Scotland or have an operational base and employees based in Scotland.
You can also join our application webinar on Tuesday 11 March 2025 from 10am to 11am. Learn more about the programme and hear past participants speak about their experiences.
The Clean Heat Accelerator programme will be held over a period of 21 weeks. This includes 15 weeks of virtual workshops, plus three in-person events and three break weeks.
You'll need to dedicate around four hours per week to attending the workshops and in-person events.
To get the most from the programme, participants should be decision-makers within your business. Different team members may attend sessions that are relevant to their role.
Read more about the different events and activities that make up the accelerator and get the dates for the 2025 programme.
During the virtual workshop weeks, you'll spend three to four hours each week attending interactive workshops and masterclasses.
These sessions will help you build leadership and business skills, develop strategic plans, and share ideas. Industry experts and specialist speakers will lead facilitated discussions, providing insights and solutions to key industry challenges.
Topics include:
Your growth journey
Sector development
Customer engagement
Communication and marketing
Building your organisation and team
Financial forecasting
Operations and systems
Funding
Over the course of the accelerator, you'll attend three in-person events. These can include presentations by speakers, site visits, networking, and partnership building opportunities.
You'll be matched with clean heat and innovation experts who will help you develop commercialisation action plans and become investment ready. They can also facilitate introductions to relevant industry contacts.
For the 2025 Clean Heat Accelerator, you should note the following important dates and events:
Accelerator launch (in-person)
week of 19 May 2025
Virtual sessions begin
week of 26 May 2025
First break week
week of 23 June 2025
Second in-person event
24 July 2025
Second break week
week of 28 July 2025
Third break week
week of 1 September 2025
Final week of virtual sessions
week of 29September 2025
Final in-person event
week of 6 October 2025
Costs and financial support
The accelerator is free to take part in, but it doesn't provide direct funding or investment. Instead, it offers in-kind support to help your business grow and scale.
A stipend of £2,000 is available to each business to help cover the costs of participating (subject to attendance).
Results of the 2023 and 2024 Clean Heat Accelerators
90%
of participants made valuable connections
60%
average sales increase in the first quarter after participating
80%
of participants likely to achieve new customers
Meet the 2023 and 2024 cohorts
Learn about the businesses that took part in the 2023 and 2024 Clean Heat Accelerators. Read participant testimonials and view a full list of companies that joined, along with a brief description of their work in clean heat and energy efficiency.
The Clean Heat Accelerator is funded by Scottish Enterprise to support the Scottish Government’s Decarbonising Heat in Buildings Strategy, which aims to reduce emissions from building stock by 68% by 2030.
The accelerator is delivered in partnership with Carbon Limiting Technologies (CLT), which provides expert guidance and support to participating businesses.
Clean Heat 2025 event
Carbon Limiting Technologies (CLT) will be attending the Scottish Enterprise Clean Heat event on 26 March 2025. If you'd like to learn more about the accelerator, this is a good opportunity to connect with the CLT team in person.
You'll also gain valuable insights into supply chain opportunities in Scotland's fast-growing clean heat sector.
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