The green technology innovations of European start-ups will save nearly a billion euros on energy costs

InnoEnergy, Europe’s sustainable energy engine supported by the EIT, has launched its inaugural impact report at The Business Booster (TBB) held in Copenhagen on the 17th-18th of October. The impact report is featuring the economic, social and environmental impacts of the innovative solutions developed by 200 start-ups supported by InnoEnergy.

The report reveals that InnoEnergy’s work supporting energy start-ups is having a direct impact on Europe’s clean energy transition: InnoEnergy´s assets will generate 1,147 GWh of power from clean energy sources, save 809.5m€ in energy costs and reduce carbon emissions by a total of 5.5m tons over 25 years, the equivalent to removing 47,000 cars from the road. Since 2011, its start-ups have created 1,741 jobs across Europe and brought energy access to 56,000 people in developing countries.

Held over two days, TBB is the only event that brings together sustainable energy innovators, established industry players, investors and public sector institutions. The sixth edition on TBB brought together more than 700 attendees from over 40 countries to join 150 cutting edge sustainable energy innovations.

The InnoEnergy network includes two start-ups of sustainable energy from Estonia, which also presented their innovative ideas at The Business Booster Conference. One of the most successful startups in Estonia, Skeleton Technologies, which has expanded its activities this year and brought its entire production from Estonia to Germany, develops high-tech supercapacitors based on groundbreaking materials of graphene. Their technology allows for high fuel economy, reduces carbon footprint and, due to its long lifespan, reduces maintenance costs. Estonian start-up company Thinnect’s technology and solutions help reduce energy costs, but also carbon dioxide pollution in both buildings and city streets. Thinnect is operating both in Silicon Valley and in Tallinn Science Park Technopol.

Jürgo Preden, Co-founder and CEO at Thinnect: “With our technology, we can identify inefficiencies in the work of both buildings and city streets, draw the attention of building managers to the problems found and manage the work of different systems to reduce energy consumption. Our technology-based solutions have been implemented in eight countries across three continents, and we work with different partners to implement these solutions even more widely. The Business Booster conference was a success for us – we met with a number of new and highly potential partners in different fields. We will definitely continue to work with InnoEnergy to expand our business in new countries.“

Elena Bou, Innovation Director at InnoEnergy: “It is amazing to see the impact we are achieving together and to cement our position as the trusted innovation partner – guiding businesses on their journeys. Our 200 start-ups have brought innovative technologies to life that are meeting the energy challenges of our changing society. Whether it is by reducing greenhouse emissions or creating jobs, these companies are creating a noticeable impact on the way Europe thinks about, develops and uses sustainable energy.”

Heleri Holm, Project manager at Tehnopol Startup Incubator: “Our goal is to increase the number of Estonian sustainable energy companies in the InnoEnergy network and negotiations with several new start-up companies on this topic are already in progress. I encourage all the start-ups looking for investment, wishing to innovate or enter the new market, to contact InnoEnergy HUB in Estonia at hubestonia@innoenergy.com.”

EIT InnoEnergy is the largest leader of sustainable energy innovations in Europe; the company’s partner in Estonia is Tallinn Science Park Tehnopol, which shares the goal of supporting the development and sustainability of Estonian innovative companies in the energy sector. Tehnopol has been operating in the development of the Estonia green energy sector since 2010 in collaboration with PAKRI Science and Industrial Park.