The winners of the ‘Start Up Energy Transition Award’, presented by the Deutsche Energie-Agentur (dena) – the German Energy Agency – have now been confirmed. Six start-ups from France, Germany, India, Bangladesh and Nigeria have received the award, persuading the jury with their innovative ideas for the energy transition and worldwide climate protection. A prestigious international jury chose the start-ups out of more than 500 applications from 66 countries. In total 18 finalists were invited to Berlin to present their ideas and business models at the ‘Start Up Energy Transition-Tech Festival’, which has brought start-ups together with company representatives from all over the world. More than 100 partners and ambassadors from over 25 countries supported the initiative. Divided into six categories, the awards were presented before an audience of prestigious conference delegates at the evening event of the Berlin Energy Transition Dialogue – the German Federal Government’s international energy transition conference – which is taking place until 21 March 2017 in Berlin.
Presenter of the awards were Patricia Espinosa, General Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC): Thomas Birr, Senior Vice President, Innovation & Business Transformation (innogy); Dr Katrin Leonhardt, Director of the Credit Institute for Reconstruction (KfW); Felix Zhang, Group Executive Director of Envision Energy; Adnan Amin, Director General of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA); and Tanja Gönner, Board Spokesperson for the German Corporation for International Co-operation (GIZ).
The ‘Start Up Energy Transition Award’ winners
Category: Urban Energy Transition
BeeBryte – Building Energy Intelligence (France): BeeBryte has developed a cloud-based software solution that is designed to optimise energy consumption. Jury’s justification: The jury chose Beebryte as the winner of this category, as it offers a unique and comprehensive solution to make prosumage work in buildings. Although there are many companies working in this field, the market is rapidly growing and is a crucial success factor for making the global energy transition work.
Category: Cleantech against Climate Change
Hydrogenious Technologies GmbH (Germany): The Liquid Organic Hydrogen Carrier technology provides a solution for secure, reliable storage of hydrogen. Jury’s justification: Hydrogenious’ solution opens up a lot of opportunities for climate benefit in a non-all-electric world. Their technology can make a huge contribution to the decarbonisation in various sectors.
Category: Future Production & Manufacturing
Sicoya GmbH (Germany): Sicoya has developed cost-effective, energy-efficient and scalable optical transceiver chips for server connections that can be mass produced. Jury’s justification: The demand for data centres is growing exponentially worldwide. Sicoyas solution is very scalable, can generate huge efficiency gains and the benefits are clearly quantifiable.
Category: Mobility meets Energy Transition
Thermal Energy Service Solutions Private Limited (TESSOL) (India): the company has built an electrically operated cold transport solution based on ‘Thermal Energy Storage’ technology, which works on the ‘Plug&Chill’ system. Jury’s justification: The jury chose TESSOL because cooling systems can have high impact in increasing the efficiency of food provision worldwide. TESSOL was able to clearly demonstrate the benefits of their technology in saving CO2 emissions and fossil fuels.
Category: Platforms and Communities
ME SOLshare (Bangladesh): With its micro-grid, ME SOLshare provides energy in regions of Bangladesh that are not yet connected to the electricity grid, enabling local users to trade the electricity produced. Jury’s justification: The technology shows how to seamlessly connect individual PV solutions into a microgrid, creating social benefits through its community oriented design. The approach is scalable not only to the Bangladeshi market, but worldwide in off-grid regions.
Category: The Special Prize category: Sustainable Future For All: Startup SDG 7
ColdHubs (Nigeria): Cold Hubs is a modular ‘Plug & Play’ cooling system that can be operated with solar energy off existing electricity grids, and which gives farmers the option of paying for their consumption via a pay-as-you-store system. Jury’s justification: ColdHubs presents a simple solution to a complex global problem. It enables farmers to increase their income by reducing losses of their otherwise perishable produce. The technology is applicable to many industries.
‘We were impressed by the vast number of outstanding, innovative business models for the energy transition that were sent in by applicants from all over the world,’ said Andreas Kuhlmann, Chief Executive of dena. ‘Our aim with the Start Up Energy Transition Award was to bring together pioneers and enablers of the global energy transition, so as to establish an international network of companies, start-ups and sustainably managed organisations. That’s because we can only make climate protection and the energy transition a worldwide success model with the help of innovation.’
“We’re excited by the innovative power of the ideas submitted” said Felix Zhang, Group Executive Director of Envision Energy and member of the awards jury. “It’s not just the prizewinning business models that show how a future with clean, safe and abundantly available energy is possible. The other ideas and initiatives, too, are an important step in this direction”.
More information on the finalists and winners of the ‘Start Up Energy Transition Award’ can be found at www.startup-energy-transition.com/newsroom
Start-ups and investors at the Tech Festival
Start-ups had the opportunity to meet potential customers and investors on Monday, at the Tech Festival in Berlin’s Kulturbrauerei. An exhibition showcased successful start-up founders whose innovative activities are contributing to climate protection. Prominent keynote speakers and panel discussions completed the programme. Speakers included Felix Zhang (Envision Energy), Peter Terium (innogy), Christopher Burghardt (Uber Technologies), Dr Jeremy Leggett (Solarcentury & Solar Aid), Jules Kortenhorst (Rocky Mountain Institute), Dirk Ahlborn (Hyperloop Technologies), Prof. Stephan Reimelt (GE Germany & Austria), Philipp Schröder (sonnen GmbH), Lisa Besserman (Startup Buenos Aires), and Claus Wattendrup (Vattenfall Europe Innovation).
More information on the Tech Festival can be found at www.startup-energy-transition.com/tech-festival
Top-class participants at the Berlin Energy Transition Dialogue 2017
Once again this year, the Federal Foreign Office and Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy are presenting the ‘Berlin Energy Transition Dialogue 2017’, which takes place in parallel on 20 and 21 March. More than 1,500 top-class participants from 70 countries are taking part, including more than 30 energy ministers and ministers for foreign affairs. Through the BETD, the Federal Government is presenting political and technological concepts for the international energy transition, in order to discuss them with international partners and promote international cooperation in the areas of climate protection, renewable energy sources and energy efficiency. The Federal Government is holding the conference in partnership with the German Renewable Energy Federation e.V., the German Solar Association e.V., the eclareon consulting agency and the German Energy Agency (dena), and it’s framed by an extensive programme of accompanying events.
More information on the Berlin Energy Transition Dialogue can be found at www.energiewende2017.com
Press contact:
Deutsche Energie-Agentur GmbH (dena), Stella Matsoukas, Chausseestrasse 128 a, 10115 Berlin, Germany
Tel.: +49 (0)30 726 165 657; fax: +49 (0)30 726 165 699; email: matsoukas@dena.de; website: www.dena.de
DWR eco GmbH, Doreen Rietentiet, Albrechtstrasse 22, 10117 Berlin, Germany
Tel.: +49 (0)30 609 819 500, Fax: +49 (0)30 609 819 509, email: rietentiet@dwr-eco.com, website: www.dwr-eco.com
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