The results from the fifth edition of InnoEnergy’s PowerUp! competition - which saw participation from over 300 start-ups from 24 countries across Central and Eastern Europe - have now been announced. A Hungarian firm came in third in the largest competition of technological innovation companies in energy in the CEE region.
Danubia NanoTech from Slovakia was named the overall winner by the judges following a close battle with its rivals for the top prize. The company has received a cheque for 50,000 euros, as well as the opportunity to join the prestigious Highway by InnoEnergy business accelerator.
The winner presented a solution for aerial temperature monitoring in a form of graphene temperature sensor, available as an extremely thin film, applied on any non-metallic substrate. This technology is valuable for EV batteries and for grid battery storages, extending the batteries’ lifetime.
Second place - and a EUR 10,000 prize - was awarded to ATLANT 3D Nanosystems from Latvia which has created a versatile 3D printer for micro and nanochip fabrication, and developed a unique solution that can rapidly accelerate prototyping for micro-and nanodevices and systems at a fraction of current time and cost.
Third place - and a EUR 5,000 prize - was taken by V-Chiller from Hungary, a revolutionary cooling device that can chill canned beverages in just a single minute, using minimal energy with minimal environmental impact via a vacuum cooling method with a proprietary, environmentally friendly refrigerant. Electricity costs this way can be reduced by more than 50%. Image by vchiller.com
Several Hungarian startups had success in the PowerUp! competition before. In 2016, GreenerGizer also grabbed the third place with a project enabling to reduce the energy consumption of refrigeration equipment. In 2017, HeatVentors was announced the winner, for a solution which offers an innovative thermal energy storage with phase change materials which can save 90% space and 20-40% energy with 6-24-month return on investment. The technology has a variety of applications for thermal energy storage: from deep freezing technologies to comfort cooling and heating, renewable energy sources, industrial technologies and concentrated solar thermal power plants.
The panel of judges and wider audience consisted of investors, industry representatives, clean energy experts and international media.
Over 300 start-ups from 24 countries across Central and Eastern Europe participated, and 14 start-ups took part in the competition, having won their respective Country Finals to gain entry to the Grand Final. Participants came from Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Serbia, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Turkey and Greece.
InnoEnergy is supported by the European Institute of Innovation & Technology (EIT), a body of the European Union.
