Most innovative energy start-ups recognised in German awards

SET awards

Fifteen start-ups deemed to have the most innovative business models in the field of energy transition and climate protection were celebrated at an award ceremony in Berlin on 28 March – recipients of The Start Up Energy Transition Award (SET Award) administered in part by the German Energy Agency (dena).

The finalists were selected from over 400 applications and 63 countries in spring 2023, and presented their ideas to an international jury of experts at the SET Tech Festival. These finalists were whittled down to a final five winning start-ups, each of which received €10,000 in prize money. The winners of the 2023 Start Up Energy Transition Award are:

Clean Energy & Storage

Energy Dome S.p.A., Italy, www.energydome.com 

Unlocking utility-scale, long-duration energy storage: Energy Dome’s CO2 battery enables dispatchable renewable electricity to make the net zero energy transition possible. The battery is based on a thermodynamic process that uses CO2 to store electricity cost-effectively.

Mobility & Transportation

Navalt Solar & Electric Boats Pvt Ltd., India, https://navaltboats.com/ 

Navalt is an ecological marine tech company that specialises in the manufacturing of solar electric vessels. The start-up is already an industry leader in the global solar market. With its innovation, the young company is helping to accelerate the complete electrification of shipping.

Industry

Heatrix GmbH, Germany, https://heatrix.de/ 

Heatrix’s wants to competitively replace fossil fuels in energy-intensive industries by converting renewable electricity into storable, high-temperature process heat. No carbon-neutral, cost-competitive and easy-to-integrate solution currently exists. Heatrix’s solution has the potential to decarbonize the majority of high-emission industries.

Buildings & Construction

Hyperion Robotics Oy, Finland, https://www.hyperionrobotics.com/ 

Hyperion Robotics designs, engineers and manufactures sustainable concrete structures, helping clients save time, money and embodied carbon. By bringing together 3D printing technology, automation and circular economy principles, Hyperion enables material usage savings of 75 percent and cuts construction’s carbon footprint by up to 90 percent.

Quality Access & SDG-7

Oorja Development Solutions India Ltd., India, https://www.oorjasolutions.org/ 

Oorja is pioneering a community-based, inclusive Pay-Per-Use model to deliver solar farming services to smallholder farmers, in turn helping them transition durably away from fossil fuels.