Press release, Berlin (German Energy Agency, dena)
15 start-ups nominated in five categories / winners of the fifth SET Awards will be chosen at the SET Tech Festival on September 1st 2021 / new SET 100 List gives insight into the most promising start-ups of the energy transition start-up scene
This year’s finalists of the Start Up Energy Transition (SET) Awards have been announced. 15 entrepreneurs have the chance to win the prestigious award at the SET Tech Festival on September 1st 2021 for their innovative business ideas to advance energy transition and climate protection. The finalists were announced by State Secretary Andreas Feicht (BMWi), Hinrich Thölken (Federal Foreign Office), Angela Wilkinson (World Energy Council) and Tanja Gönner (GIZ) during the evening reception of the Berlin Energy Transition Dialogue (BETD).
The SET Award 2021 consists of 5 categories:Clean Energy Generation, Demand-side Innovation, Energy Distribution and Storage, Smart Mobility & Transportation, Quality Energy Access & SDG-7. An international jury of experts selected the final 15 start-ups from over 540 applications from 89 countries.
Andreas Kuhlmann, CEO of the German Energy-Agency (dena): “The many applications from all over the world show how highly valued the SET Award is in the international start-up scene and that the SET Network gives young companies an additional push. The new ideas and approaches of the applicants impressed the jury: the 15 finalists reflect this quality. In addition, the SET100 list includes many other projects that take a visionary approach to energy transition and climate protection.”
SET 100 List presents the most exciting projects in the energy transition start-up scene
Every year there is a new list of most promising start-ups from the energy sector: The SET 100 List. The compilation presents the 100 best start-up companies that have applied for the SET Award. More than 80 of the start-ups that made it into the current Top 100 present their business models in the course of the Berlin Energy Week.
The SET Award and the SET 100 list are part of the global SET initiative, which is powered by the German Energy Agency (dena) and the World Energy Council. The SET platform was founded in 2016 by dena with the support of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi). In addition to the annual competition, the initiative offers start-ups from all over the world a platform to present themselves: the SET network. The network aims to bring fresh ideas and established stakeholders in the energy sector into contact. Over 100 partners from politics, business, science and non-governmental organisations participate worldwide.
Sign up for the SET 100 Pitches 2021 at the Berlin Energy Week
More information on the SET Award, the SET Tech Festival and the SET Initiative at www.www.startup-energy-transition.com.
Finalists of the SET Award 2021:
Category Clean Energy Generation
ecoligo GmbH, Germany, www.ecoligo.com
ecoligo is a solar utility that provides low-cost solar energy to local businesses in emerging markets. By financing the solar systems through a crowdinvesting platform, they close the finance gap that prevents these projects from being realised.
WinJi AG, Switzerland, www.win-ji.com
WinJi’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) based software platform analyses, reports, forecasts and calculates recommendations to improve production and overall performance of individual renewable assets and entire portfolios. The cloud based ‘True Power’ Platform solution is fully scalable and incorporates in-house patent-filed anomaly detection methods.
PowerUP Fuel Cells OÜ, Estonia, https://www.powerup-tech.com/
PowerUP Fuel Cells OÜ, produces in-class hydrogen fuel cell based electric generators and proton exchange membrane fuel cells. Their generators have diverse use cases in industries such as marine, telecommunication, military, construction, hospitals, off-grid homes, and rescue forces. The UP® product range is sustainable since it emits zero-emission, compact and lightweight, operates silently and requires minimal maintenance
Category Demand-Side Innovation
Allume Energy, Australia, www.AllumeEnergy.com.au
The SolShare shares the power generated from a single solar system to multiple apartments behind-the-meter, therefore requiring no change to standard metering infrastructure. This minimises the capital expenditure and regulatory overheads for both existing buildings and greenfield developments.
Standard Euler, Inc., USA, https://flair.co
The Standard Euler Smart Air Delivery platform ensures that heating and cooling is being delivered to rooms with people in them, eliminates balance problems that contribute to inefficient energy consumption, and helps occupants stay comfortable in the process. Their Puck and Puck Pro instantly makes the world’s most common havoc system smart.
Ekkono Solutions AB, Sweden, ekkono.ai
Ekkono is a software company that does Edge Machine Learning. This means that we enable and expedite the development of smart, self-learning and predictive features onboard machines, vehicles and other connected things (IoT). By enabling individual learning per device, product OEMs can automate their domain expertise to help operate every unit in an optimal way, which reduces wear, extends product life, and ensures energy-efficient use based on super-local conditions like climate, load, purpose and preferences.
Category Energy Distribution & Storage
ACCURE Battery Intelligence GmbH, Germany, www.accure.net
ACCURE makes batteries safe, reliable, and sustainable using cloud computing. Building on a highly scalable web platform, battery manufacturers and operators can manage and optimize their battery systems without the need for additional hardware. ACCURE’s cutting-edge battery diagnostics use readily available BMS measurements to uncover insight previously hidden in the data.
Evergen, Australia, https://www.evergen.com.au/
Evergen has developed a software optimising energy storage systems and orchestrating large fleets of batteries to enable Virtual Power Plants. There is no hardware involved, all their connections to load, generation, and storage are made through cloud-cloud APIs, making their technology highly scalable.
AMPACIMON, Belgium, http://www.ampacimon.com/
Ampacimon’s Dynamic Line Rating system is designed for use by transmission and distribution system operators. Software calculates the real-time and forecast line ratings, and interfaces with the grid control center’s SCADA and Energy Management System. Line rating accuracy can be enhanced by installing sensors on the overhead lines or underground cables. The sensors measure key parameters influencing the maximum thermal capacity of a line
Category Smart Mobility and Transportation
kraftwerk TUBES GmbH, Germany, www.kraftwerkgroup.com
kraftwerk directly supplies fuel cells/stacks/boxes for the powertrain of a wide range of applications. This technology can be used in the automotive industry, in aviation or in new fields like unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) and surveillance or the Internet of Things (IoT). The advanced solid oxide fuel cells (aSOFCs) are produced in Dresden/Germany and can convert the chemical energy of hydrogen or all common e-fuels directly into electrical energy.
ChargeX GmbH, Germany, www.chargex.de
ChargeX develops modular charging solutions for electric cars. Their charging system Aqueduct is specifically designed for underground parking garages and employee parking lots. It enables infrastructure providers to set-up and later scale-up large-scale charging infrastructure affordably and with little installation effort.
DUCKT OU, Estonia, www.duckt.app
DUCKT develops and produces internationally patented infrastructure solutions for micromobility. A single & unified solution to dock, lock and charge any micromobility vehicle that is either shared, public or private in one spot.
Category Quality Access & SDG7
Science For Society Techno Services Pvt Ltd, India, https://www.s4stechnologies.com/
S4S Solar Conduction Dryer (SCD) is an electricity-free solar-powered food dehydrator that reduces moisture content in agro-produce so that farmers and rural residents can preserve their products for up to 1 year without using any chemicals.
Boreal Light GmbH, Germany, www.winture.de
The company designs and manufactures affordable solar water desalination systems for off-grid communities around the globe. Systems manufactured by Boreal Light are capable of delivering high quality hygiene drinking, irrigation, fish farm and sanitation water from any kind of high saline and polluted water resources.
Nithio Holdings, Inc., USA, https://www.nithio.com/
Nithio offers DRE companies, asset managers, investors, grant/concessional capital providers, and others a fully integrated, data-driven platform that will help standardize the sector, reduce barriers to collaboration, and enable the sector to scale. Their approach to understanding and evaluating credit risk provides a means for each of these stakeholder groups to work towards their goal of ensuring universal energy access throughout Africa by 2030.
