KIC InnoEnergy and Climate-KIC celebrate joint EIT Award success

Also see: New Generation of Innovators Celebrate Success at InnovEIT

May 7 2015 – Budapest, Hungary – KIC InnoEnergy, the European company for innovation, education and business creation in sustainable energy, and Climate-KIC, the EU’s main climate innovation initiative, are today celebrating the success of three of their projects at the EIT Awards, presented at InnovEIT in Budapest last night.

KIC InnoEnergy Masters School Graduate Govinda Upadhyay won the EIT Change Award for his design of a simple and affordable solar LED lamp, and the EIT Innovators Award went to EOLOS Floating LIDAR Solutions (CEO Rajai Aghabi), a KIC InnoEnergy supported project, for breaking new ground in the field of affordable wind energy.

Climate-KIC startup Nordic Power Converters (co-founder Regnar Paaske) of Denmark won the EIT Venture Award for his imaginative redesign of small, long lasting power converters.

And, in a measure of the value of collaboration between partners of the EIT, following on from his graduation from KIC InnoEnergy’s PhD programme, Govinda Upadhyay’s solar LED Lamp project is benefiting from the Climate-KIC start up Acceleration Programme, turning his innovative idea into a business.

Diego Pavia, CEO at KIC InnoEnergy, says: “We are delighted by the success of our programme and graduates in these Awards. The EIT Awards recognise the best in innovation and each of these projects demonstrates commitment to advancing sustainable growth and competitiveness in the field of sustainable energy. 

“I’m delighted that Govinda is now being supported in setting up and growing his business by Climate-KIC. This is a great example of how, by working together, the KIC group can create businesses that can make a real difference in sustainable energy solutions.”

Bertrand van Ee, CEO of Climate-KIC, says: “Indeed it’s all about collaboration: discovering talent and scaling it up.

“I’m very proud to see two of our start-ups win awards today.  I see their hunger for success determination and passion for tackling climate change through new technology. Climate-KIC only selects the best and we put all our efforts into developing these innovators to introduce them to markets.”  

/ENDS

Note for Editors

About KIC InnoEnergy (www.kic-innoenergy.com)

KIC InnoEnergy is the European company dedicated to promoting innovation, entrepreneurship and education in the sustainable energy field by bringing together academics, business and research institutes. KIC InnoEnergy´s goal is to make a positive impact on sustainable energy in Europe, by creating future game changers with a different mind-set, and bringing innovative products, services and successful companies to life.

With its headquarters in the Netherlands, KIC InnoEnergy develops its activities across a network of offices located in Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Poland and Sweden. More than 150 partners contribute to KIC InnoEnergy’s activities, forming a first class and dynamic network that is always open to new entrants. The company’s 27 shareholders are committed to a 7 year industrial plan in which they pledge to mobilise €700 million of resources during the period 2011-2015 alone.

KIC InnoEnergy is financially supported by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) and, while a profit-oriented company, has a “not for dividend” financial strategy, reinvesting all its profits back into the organisation’s activities.

About Climate-KIC (https://www.climate-kic.org/)

Climate-KIC is the EU’s main climate innovation initiative. It is Europe’s largest public-private innovation partnership focused on mitigating and adapting to climate change. Climate-KIC consists of companies, academic institutions and the public sector.

The organisation has its headquarters in London, UK, and leverages national and regional centres across Europe to educate students and professionals, to support start-up companies and to bring together partners on innovation projects to bring about a connected, creative transformation of knowledge and ideas into products and services that help mitigate and adapt to climate change.

Climate-KIC is supported by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), a body of the European Union.

About the projects

LED Safari

LED Safari has designed an innovative solar lamp which is made up of only five carefully chosen electrical components and which can be self-assembled by anyone. It is the cheapest available solar lamp (2$) which has the potential to replace kerosene lamps (2$/week for fuel). It can be assembled without prior technical knowledge using locally available material and is easy to repair at the village level after a basic training.

We have developed a specific training method combined with a community approach which empowers people with a real understanding of sustainability and the basic knowledge how to build this solar lamp. We work on three pillars: Training, lamp and community.

EOLOS LiDAR

EOLOS LiDAR buoy can take wind measurements from sea surface up to 200 meters with a precision similar to a met mast, but only for the 10% of its cost. Additionally, the buoy measures wave and current data, which up to now had been done by a smaller buoy.

EOLOS LiDAR buoy offers a low cost, accurate and reliable offshore wind data source, allowing the performance of measurements at heights over 200m above sea level, and at much lower costs (up to 10 times less) than conventional bottom-fixed offshore met masts. Moreover, it offers positional flexibility and can be reused in other areas within a wind farm site (or on other sites), potentially reducing the uncertainties of wind speed measurement.

Nordic Power Converters

Nordic Power Converters’ patent pending power conversion technology solves several problems in products like LED lighting and chargers.

The incumbent technology has not changed materially for many years. Our power converters enable strong benefits for our customers and the end-users:

  • 80% reduced size and weight
  • 50% reduced cost
  • Highly increased lifespan/reliability
  • 100 times faster transient response
  • Greener footprint in several aspects

While the company is a new university spin-out, the idea, the team behind it and the business relations has been developed for more than two years following a technological breakthrough in January 2012.

Press Contact

Rosie Williams
Aspectus PR London
Account Manager
rosie.williams@aspectuspr.com
+44 (0) 20 7092 8127

 
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