Nominated innovations
1000 innovative clean energy solutions and > 10 framework explorers with the potential to deliver close to three gigatonnes of avoided emissions by 2030
Harvesting heat from the city
Heat Harvest addresses the need for cooling in urban hot spots. The standard solution is to install air conditioning units and blow the hot air outside. This solution is not is suitable in densely populated city areas. Thus, other technical solutions are sought. Heat Harvest intends to cool pavements and building walls which are directly exposed to sunlight with water cooling lines which are directly enclosed in concrete, asphalt etc. which therefore have extremely low maintenance needs.
Climathon Project Heat Harvest
Austria
Currently unavailable
innovation: added 14th May, 2019
Climathon Project Heat Harvest
Harvesting heat from the city
Heat Harvest addresses the need for cooling in urban hot spots. The standard solution is to install air conditioning units and blow the hot air outside. This solution is not is suitable in densely populated city areas. Thus, other technical solutions are sought. Heat Harvest intends to cool pavements and building walls which are directly exposed to sunlight with water cooling lines which are directly enclosed in concrete, asphalt etc. which therefore have extremely low maintenance needs.
2030 potential GHG reductions
Currently unavailable
Heat-Source-Tower Heat Pump
Air conditioning and hot water system account for 40%-50% of total energy consumption in buildings. Through innovative structural design, Qiuke Heat-Source-Tower Heat Pump utilises sensible and latent heat in the air to efficiently carry out triple supply of air-conditioning, heating and hot water for the building. Meanwhile, the product has the same advantage as common water-cooling air conditioner and water source heat pump. The emission reduction potential of the product will be more remarkable when applied in areas with hot humid weather in the summer and cold humid weather in winter.
Hunan Qiuke Heat-Source-Tower Heat Pump Technology Engineering Co., LTD
China
Currently unavailable
innovation: added 15th March, 2019
Hunan Qiuke Heat-Source-Tower Heat Pump Technology Engineering Co., LTD
Heat-Source-Tower Heat Pump
Air conditioning and hot water system account for 40%-50% of total energy consumption in buildings. Through innovative structural design, Qiuke Heat-Source-Tower Heat Pump utilises sensible and latent heat in the air to efficiently carry out triple supply of air-conditioning, heating and hot water for the building. Meanwhile, the product has the same advantage as common water-cooling air conditioner and water source heat pump. The emission reduction potential of the product will be more remarkable when applied in areas with hot humid weather in the summer and cold humid weather in winter.
2030 potential GHG reductions
Currently unavailable
Heliospectra
As agriculture evolves, greenhouses must also adapt - structures will be built both above and below ground, and integrated into existing buildings to enable production close to the consumers.
Heliospectra has combined a deep knowledge of plant physiology and photosynthesis with smart LED lighting solutions for professional growers and researchers. Heliospectra’s unique use of LED lights optimizes the growth of individual plant families at the same time that it gives the plants exactly the properties that consumers are looking for. The result is energy saved, yield increased, waste reduced, and quality improved.
Heliospectra AB (publ)
Sweden
Currently unavailable
innovation: added 18th March, 2019
Heliospectra AB (publ)
Heliospectra
As agriculture evolves, greenhouses must also adapt - structures will be built both above and below ground, and integrated into existing buildings to enable production close to the consumers.
Heliospectra has combined a deep knowledge of plant physiology and photosynthesis with smart LED lighting solutions for professional growers and researchers. Heliospectra’s unique use of LED lights optimizes the growth of individual plant families at the same time that it gives the plants exactly the properties that consumers are looking for. The result is energy saved, yield increased, waste reduced, and quality improved.
2030 potential GHG reductions
Currently unavailable
Heliospectra
As agriculture evolves, greenhouses must also adapt - structures will be built both above and below ground, and integrated into existing buildings to enable production close to the consumers.
Heliospectra has combined a deep knowledge of plant physiology and photosynthesis with smart LED lighting solutions for professional growers and researchers. Heliospectra’s unique use of LED lights optimizes the growth of individual plant families at the same time that it gives the plants exactly the properties that consumers are looking for. The result is energy saved, yield increased, waste reduced, and quality improved.
Heliospectra AB (publ)
Sweden
Currently unavailable
innovation: added 18th March, 2019
Heliospectra AB (publ)
Heliospectra
As agriculture evolves, greenhouses must also adapt - structures will be built both above and below ground, and integrated into existing buildings to enable production close to the consumers.
Heliospectra has combined a deep knowledge of plant physiology and photosynthesis with smart LED lighting solutions for professional growers and researchers. Heliospectra’s unique use of LED lights optimizes the growth of individual plant families at the same time that it gives the plants exactly the properties that consumers are looking for. The result is energy saved, yield increased, waste reduced, and quality improved.
2030 potential GHG reductions
Currently unavailable
High-efficient, Flexible and Ultra-thin c-Si Solar Cells
PV power has become an important solution of the future energy problem, however, in the manufacturing cost of mainstream crystalline silicon (c-Si) PV modules, silicon wafer accounts for a big proportion, and it is also the most energy consuming and polluting process in the PV industry chain.
Yes Solar Energy Technology develops a route with no cutting and slicing process to fabricate the super-thin and flexible c-Si solar cells. It eliminates the typical energy intensive steps in traditional production process of solar cell, such as the Siemens process, ingot, slicing, etc. The consumption of silicon material is only 1/10 of the traditional process, and the cell manufacturing energy consumption is only 1/4 of traditional c-Si technology. This kind of PV cell and module products are high-efficient, flexible and super-thin with thickness less than 40 μm. With advanced battery structure and processing technology, the component efficiency can reach as high as 22%.It also shows outstanding performance with wide angle light and weak light. The working temperature of component is 5-7 degrees lower than that of the traditional product, leading to a greatly improved energy output in the actual operating environment. Packaging on flexible substrate is achieved through the breakthrough in the process integration. By a unique intermediate-pressure-plasma process, a c-Si thin-film can be obtained with a deposition rate of 10 times faster, a production yield of 2 times higher, and a temperature of 400 ℃ lower than those typically attained by the conventional thermal chemical vapor deposition.
The product is mainly used in the differentiated market including building integration, military applications, solar powered aircraft, stratospheric airship, unmanned aerial vehicles, mobile electronics, electric vehicles, smart wear, etc. When large-scale produced in the future, it will also be applied to distributed PV power generation projects.
Yes Solar Energy Technology Co. Ltd.
China
Currently unavailable
innovation: added 20th February, 2019
Yes Solar Energy Technology Co. Ltd.
High-efficient, Flexible and Ultra-thin c-Si Solar Cells
PV power has become an important solution of the future energy problem, however, in the manufacturing cost of mainstream crystalline silicon (c-Si) PV modules, silicon wafer accounts for a big proportion, and it is also the most energy consuming and polluting process in the PV industry chain.
Yes Solar Energy Technology develops a route with no cutting and slicing process to fabricate the super-thin and flexible c-Si solar cells. It eliminates the typical energy intensive steps in traditional production process of solar cell, such as the Siemens process, ingot, slicing, etc. The consumption of silicon material is only 1/10 of the traditional process, and the cell manufacturing energy consumption is only 1/4 of traditional c-Si technology. This kind of PV cell and module products are high-efficient, flexible and super-thin with thickness less than 40 μm. With advanced battery structure and processing technology, the component efficiency can reach as high as 22%.It also shows outstanding performance with wide angle light and weak light. The working temperature of component is 5-7 degrees lower than that of the traditional product, leading to a greatly improved energy output in the actual operating environment. Packaging on flexible substrate is achieved through the breakthrough in the process integration. By a unique intermediate-pressure-plasma process, a c-Si thin-film can be obtained with a deposition rate of 10 times faster, a production yield of 2 times higher, and a temperature of 400 ℃ lower than those typically attained by the conventional thermal chemical vapor deposition.
The product is mainly used in the differentiated market including building integration, military applications, solar powered aircraft, stratospheric airship, unmanned aerial vehicles, mobile electronics, electric vehicles, smart wear, etc. When large-scale produced in the future, it will also be applied to distributed PV power generation projects.
2030 potential GHG reductions
Currently unavailable
HIKARI positive energy building
Toshiba and Bouygues have together developed a solution for positive energy buildings they called “HIKARI” (meaning ‘light’), which generates more energy than it consumes. A first-of-a-kind positive energy building, located in Lyon, France, HIKARI is designed to be an exceptional example of a smart building that leads to rethinking the design of more traditional buildings, to ensure a smart, sustainable city. Created through a partnership with the Japanese government agency New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) and Grand Lyon, HIKARI is a part of Metropolitan Lyon’s mid-term objective to design new uses for housing and shared areas to encourage a "zero carbon" territory.
Toshiba and Bouygues
Japan
30
innovation: added 13th May, 2019
Toshiba and Bouygues
HIKARI positive energy building
Toshiba and Bouygues have together developed a solution for positive energy buildings they called “HIKARI” (meaning ‘light’), which generates more energy than it consumes. A first-of-a-kind positive energy building, located in Lyon, France, HIKARI is designed to be an exceptional example of a smart building that leads to rethinking the design of more traditional buildings, to ensure a smart, sustainable city. Created through a partnership with the Japanese government agency New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) and Grand Lyon, HIKARI is a part of Metropolitan Lyon’s mid-term objective to design new uses for housing and shared areas to encourage a "zero carbon" territory.
2030 potential GHG reductions
30t CO2e/year
Hyperloop development
Hyperloop is a new means of ground transportation that can carry passengers and cargo at speeds up to 1000 km/h inside low-pressure tubes. Zeleros' hyperloop system minimizes infrastructure complexity to achieve a scalable solution that will enable long-distance travel. By integrating Zeleros’ main levitation and propulsion technologies in the vehicle, the electrification needs of infrastructure are reduced, resulting in lower costs and easier maintenance. Zeleros’ fully-autonomous vehicle enables the use of a tubular infrastructure which has reduced construction and maintenance costs in comparison with other high-speed ground transport systems.
Zeleros
Spain
Currently unavailable
innovation: added 15th March, 2019
Zeleros
Hyperloop development
Hyperloop is a new means of ground transportation that can carry passengers and cargo at speeds up to 1000 km/h inside low-pressure tubes. Zeleros' hyperloop system minimizes infrastructure complexity to achieve a scalable solution that will enable long-distance travel. By integrating Zeleros’ main levitation and propulsion technologies in the vehicle, the electrification needs of infrastructure are reduced, resulting in lower costs and easier maintenance. Zeleros’ fully-autonomous vehicle enables the use of a tubular infrastructure which has reduced construction and maintenance costs in comparison with other high-speed ground transport systems.
2030 potential GHG reductions
Currently unavailable
Industrial chemical heat transformer
The Qpinch Industrial Chemical Heat Transformer is capable of recovering industrial waste heat from 75 °C and turn it into new process heat (e.g. steam) up to a temperature of max. 230 °C in a CO₂ neutral manner. Qpinch says that the solution is applicable on a megawatt scale throughout all major industries such as chemical, food etc. The company also claims to have the lowest total cost of ownership of all commercially available heat-producing technologies.
Qpinch
Belgium
54
innovation: added 13th March, 2019
Qpinch
Industrial chemical heat transformer
The Qpinch Industrial Chemical Heat Transformer is capable of recovering industrial waste heat from 75 °C and turn it into new process heat (e.g. steam) up to a temperature of max. 230 °C in a CO₂ neutral manner. Qpinch says that the solution is applicable on a megawatt scale throughout all major industries such as chemical, food etc. The company also claims to have the lowest total cost of ownership of all commercially available heat-producing technologies.
2030 potential GHG reductions
54t CO2e/year
Insect-based protein for aqua feed
Hexafly are developing new material sources for the aqua feed, chitin and plant nutrition industries from the sustainable farming of insects. Chitin is a high-value bio-polymer with many uses in medicine, cosmetics and as a food additive. Hexafly is also developing novel chitin extraction technologies.
In the next few years, Hexafly predicts that the exponential increase in demand for fish food will far exceed supply and the industry will not be able to meet this demand due to declining wild fish stocks, stricter fishing quotas and an increase in material costs. Hexafly’s aim is to bring an insect farming revolution to the world and find smart ways to feed the planet.
Hexafly
Ireland
Currently unavailable
innovation: added 21st December, 2018
Hexafly
Insect-based protein for aqua feed
Hexafly are developing new material sources for the aqua feed, chitin and plant nutrition industries from the sustainable farming of insects. Chitin is a high-value bio-polymer with many uses in medicine, cosmetics and as a food additive. Hexafly is also developing novel chitin extraction technologies.
In the next few years, Hexafly predicts that the exponential increase in demand for fish food will far exceed supply and the industry will not be able to meet this demand due to declining wild fish stocks, stricter fishing quotas and an increase in material costs. Hexafly’s aim is to bring an insect farming revolution to the world and find smart ways to feed the planet.
2030 potential GHG reductions
Currently unavailable
Intelligent electric bike trailers
NÜWIEL has developed and built an electric bicycle trailer that automatically follows the movement of the bicycle. The cyclist does not feel the load of the trailer or the cargo. The trailer, thanks to a special coupling, is mounted in a few seconds under the saddle of the bicycle, without the need for further installations. When used without a bicycle, it can also be used as an electrically powered handcart in pedestrian-only zones and inside buildings. Thanks to NÜWIEL’s modular design, the trailer can be used with different cargo structures. It is possible to install an existing transport box system on the trailer, or to develop a custom box for different needs.
NÜWIEL
Germany
64
innovation: added 21st December, 2018
NÜWIEL
Intelligent electric bike trailers
NÜWIEL has developed and built an electric bicycle trailer that automatically follows the movement of the bicycle. The cyclist does not feel the load of the trailer or the cargo. The trailer, thanks to a special coupling, is mounted in a few seconds under the saddle of the bicycle, without the need for further installations. When used without a bicycle, it can also be used as an electrically powered handcart in pedestrian-only zones and inside buildings. Thanks to NÜWIEL’s modular design, the trailer can be used with different cargo structures. It is possible to install an existing transport box system on the trailer, or to develop a custom box for different needs.
2030 potential GHG reductions
64t CO2e/year