2.1 Aspirational innovations

In April, Hardt Hyperloop signed a strategic deal with EIT InnoEnergy, Europe’s sustainable energy innovation engine. A sizeable investment, introductions to EIT InnoEnergy’s ecosystem of 500+ industry partners as well as access to its commercial resources, helped Hardt Hyperloop to fast track the demonstration of Europe’s first hyperloop test facility and much more in 2019.

At a "Grand Reveal" event in June, EIT InnoEnergy -backed Hardt Hyperloop revealed break-through Hyperloop Lane Switch (HLS) technology. The lane- -switching technology allows hyperloop vehicles to change from one lane to another without additional or moving components. This enables the vehicles to retain their high speeds, effortlessly switch routes, and merge in and out of the network.

The completion of the HLS marks both the end of a testing phase and the beginning of a much larger testing facility titled the "European Hyperloop Centre". The first test phase assessed fundamental hyperloop technologies including magnetic levitation, low pressure environments, a propulsion system, cargo/passenger weight simulation, and lane-switching technology.

In October, an international business consortium led by Dutch clean energy conglomerate Koolen Industries made a multi-million-euro investment in Hardt Hyperloop. This investment round was backed by the renowned German fund Freigeist Capital, multiple Dutch and Belgium investors, and one of the first engineers of Uber. The company has raised more than ten million euros to date.

With this latest investment, the company is getting ready for the next step: to realise the European Hyperloop Center, a three kilometer hyperloop test facility to prove hyperloop technologies at high speeds.

Tim Houter, CEO, Hardt Hyperloop

This partnership will pave the way for several big projects that will ensure a successful commercial implementation of our hyperloop solution. It’s great to have such a broad and international group of investors who will help with local developments, as well as having the continued support of our first investors.

NAWA Technologies (supported by EIT InnoEnergy) are makers of next-generation ultracapacitor-based energy storage systems, and have entered a crucial phase of its rapid scale-up: industrialisation and mass production.

Having completed its technical development programme, NAWA has also successfully raised €9 million from new investors, including industrial investment company Kouros and CAAP Creation (the venture capital arm of Credit Agricole Alpes Provence) alongside existing investors Demeter, Région Sud Investissement, Supernova Invest, Davaniere Capital Partners and EIT InnoEnergy.

While in the process of finalising further funding, NAWA Technologies prepared to install a first of its kind production line at its Aix-en-Provence facility. By the end of 2019, the first manufacturing equipment was installed and operational, allowing NAWA to steadily build up to over 100,000 ultracapacitor cells a month when at full capacity. With today’s global market for ultracapacitors worth around €500 million, but estimated to grow to €2-3 billion in 2023, NAWA Technologies is ideally positioned to take advantage of increased demand.

Pascal Boulanger, COO of NAWA Technologies, said: “Having completed our development phase with highly-successful results, we are delighted to announce we will be operational with the first phase of our production by the end of this year. The installation of new manufacturing equipment at our facility begins in earnest and we will soon supply cells to a wide range of global sectors. Our technology really does have the potential to revolutionise energy storage and there are no limits to how far we can take it.”

In 2019, Nawa Technologies was also recognized in the BPI Deeptech Book. Pascal Boulanger commented: “Being recognised in the BPI Deep Tech book is a real honor and a strong motivation for us, as we see this recognition as a confirmation of our work and the continued support of our work by BPI.”

Ulrik Grape, CEO, NAWA Technologies

Global ultracapacitor demand is set to rocket in the coming years and we are perfectly positioned to meet the increased needs of multiple sectors, from manufacturing to automotive, urban mobility to smart energy management. Thanks to the backing of new and existing investors, we are rapidly scaling up and we are very excited indeed to be entering the industrialisation phase with mass production imminent.

EIT InnoEnergy’s portfolio company Betterspace, the leading one-stop shop for digitalisation and energy efficiency in hotels, successfully closed a €3 million Series A investment round led by Statkraft Ventures. With their holistic solution platform Betterspace helps hotel managers and owners save energy, reduce costs and generate new (digital) income streams.

Due to changing customer needs towards more personalised offerings and an increased transparency, through online booking and review portals, hoteliers need new sophisticated ways to set themselves apart from the competition. Betterspace’s scalable product suite offers complete solutions for individualising the customer journey, as well as optimising the internal processes and the energy management system of a hotel. Today, more than 500 hotels use customised Betterspace solutions such as, integrated digital assistants, intelligent room control and electric charging, in order to attract and bind customers, decrease the overall operating costs as well as increase revenues.

This continuously-growing market success has convinced Statkraft Ventures to join EIT InnoEnergy and lead asizable Series A investment round to help Betterspace with their expansion into further European markets.

Luis Sperr, Business Creation Manager at EIT InnoEnergy, said: “We have had a very successful partnership with Betterspace dating back to 2015. Since then the Betterspace team was able to provide value to the hoteliers and thus to steadily grow their market share and their revenues, especially in Germany. Now it’s time to continue this success story Europe-wide. With Statkraft Ventures we’ve found the right partner at the right time for doing so.”

Stefan Hülsen, Senior Investment Manager at Statkraft Ventures, commented: ”Reducing the hotels‘ operating expenditures while increasing revenue is a strong selling point, not only for Betterspace’s clients but also for us. The company’s technology, as well as the strong and demonstrated need in the hospitality industry for integrated products and services, has convinced us to support the founders on their way to becoming the leading hotel digitalisation provider.”

Gerhard Weiß, Co-founder, Betterspace

We are proud of what we have accomplished so far, especially in the German-speaking countries. This investment opens up many possibilities for us, to develop our business further and grow internationally. We are very happy about the support and now want and need to expand our leading position in the hospitality industry.

EIT InnoEnergy joins BGA Invest and Midroc New Technology as a major shareholder in Minesto as it converts previously issued warrants to shares.

In August 2019, EIT InnoEnergy exercised warrants issued in previous years subscribing 7,121,561 shares in Minesto. This move made EIT InnoEnergy the third- -largest shareholder in the Swedish marine energy developer alongside main owners BGA Invest and Midroc New Technology. The support was given with the ambition of making the company the biggest success in the tidal energy, and paving the way to become a major energy equipment company, which will reinforce the European leadership in the renewable energy sector.

With more than €500 million invested in innovations in the energy sector, EIT InnoEnergy is a European powerhouse in supporting and bringing new ideas and products to the market. In 2015, EIT InnoEnergy made its first investment in Minesto and its largest ever at that time in marine energy with €3.5 million. EIT InnoEnergy has since continued to support Minesto with further investments towards the further development and commercialisation of Deep Green, Minesto’s unique tidal energy technology.

Javier Sanz, Thematic Leader for Renewable Energies at EIT InnoEnergy and Minesto board member, stressed that "The technology, the team and the core investors in Minesto, have prevailed for taking such a decision. Projects in Holyhead and Faroe Islands clearly show there is a high potential for a very successful commercial evolution in the upcoming years. This is a cornerstone for the blue energy sector, and as a result, is of great value to us."

Dr. Martin Edlund, CEO, Minesto

EIT InnoEnergy’s commitment underlines the role of ocean energy by Minesto’s technology in the global transition to a renewable energy system. As a major investor in Minesto and in opening up its ecosystem, EIT InnoEnergy has been a key supporter of ours and played an important role in our development.

EIT InnoEnergy agreed to join the shareholding at Nabrawind Technologies, increasing their support that started in 2018. The Spanish company completed, in the same operation, a capital increase of €1,175,000 with the recent entry of Basarro 2005 S.L. in its shareholding, which joins Nabrawind SL, Barinaga&Alberdi SA and Sodena SL.

This new round complements the second contribution made by the initial partners in 2018 that amounted to €1.5 million.

Shortly before closing this operation, the Spanish company also received a grant from the Horizon 2020 SME Instrument programme for €1.7 million. As a result, the financial situation of Nabrawind Technologies has considerably strengthened, allowing the company to face with confidence the market entry phase, which started in the same year.

After the prototypes phase in 2018, Nabrawind announced in 2020 that it will also install the tallest tower in Africa (144m high). Nevertheless, and according to its development plan, the Spanish team is already working on self-erecting towers that exceed 200m high, which will become a global "wind roof". Likewise, very advanced contacts are being maintained with the main players of the wind sector for the installation of their two solutions, both modular blade and self-erecting tower, planned for 2020 and 2021.

Eneko Sanz, General Manager, Nabrawind Technologies

The profile of the new partners has prevailed. One of them, with a deep presence in Navarre and recognised industrial trajectory, the other one with an outstanding knowledge of the wind sector. Their presence will provide additional value, beyond mere financial support, which is also important.

Securing €350 million loan from the European Investment Bank, raising capital and receiving a €5.8 million investment into the critical ‘Revolt’ programme are among the achievements of Northvolt, a Swedish company specialising in the production of lithium-ion batteries that EIT InnoEnergy is co-investing in.

Northvolt has secured a €350 million loan from the European Investment Bank (EIB). Northvolt, a Swedish innovation developing high-quality green batteries, has requested this loan to raise funds to build Europe’s biggest battery plant. The establishment of the plant is critical to help Europe compete with Asian rivals such as CATL, Samsung and LG Chem, which are leaders in the battery market. This was also the EIB’s largest ever direct financing of battery technology, which is a considerable achievement for Northvolt. The company has also raised US$1 billion from parties including Volkswagen, BMW, the merchant banking division of Goldman Sachs.

Finally, EIT InnoEnergy, with the support of the EIT and the European Union, has invested €5.8 million into Northvolt’s "Revolt" programme. The programme, which will implement the latest discoveries in efficient materials recovery methods, will see the construction of a pilot battery recycling plant, followed by a full-scale version at Northvolt’s site in Skellefteå in 2022. EIT InnoEnergy’s investment supports Northvolt’s target of using 50% recycled materials in all of its new battery cells by 2030.

Diego Pavia, EIT InnoEnergy CEO, said: “This is a landmark investment and one that has a mission critical role to play in addressing climate issues. Europe’s energy transition relies on creating a local, competitive and sustainable battery value supply chain that can support the electrification of the transport, power and industrial sectors. As battery volumes are expected to increase drastically, it will be doubly important that, as an industry, we do everything we can to reduce their manufacturing footprint.”

Peter Carlsson, CEO, Northvolt

We are very pleased to have the continued support of EIT InnoEnergy as we take this next step in developing our blueprint for sustainable battery manufacturing. Our partnership with EIT InnoEnergy has been vital in getting us to where we are today; not only has it provided investments, it has opened doors for us across Europe.

CorPower Ocean, supported by EIT InnoEnergy, and Simply Blue Energy signed a Strategic Collaboration Agreement to develop a number of significant wave energy projects off the coasts of the UK and Ireland.

The two parties are no strangers. After Simply Blue Energy completed a comprehensive research project, in collaboration with consultancy Wave Venture, in 2017 to identify the most viable wave energy technologies emerging globally, Simply Blue Energy and CorPower exchanged a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for further collaboration. This has now become a Strategic Collaboration Agreement, focusing on the large scale, commercial roll-out of wave energy arrays.

Simply Blue Energy has identified a number of development areas suitable for commercial wave energy project deployment. Under this agreement, they have exclusive rights to use CorPower’s technology in the designated zones and aim to start producing and exporting electricity as early as 2024. According to the agreement CorPower reserves supply capacity for the respective projects.

Simply Blue Energy will also investigate the development and deployment of combined floating wind and wave energy farms. This will enable the exploration of opportunities to significantly reduce costs, as well as increasing output, by dovetailing the variations in resource availability between wind and wave energy.

CorPower has already proven that its revolutionary technology offers a step-change in structural efficiency, making it up-to-five-times more efficient than what is currently available on the market.

We are also proud to announce that CorPower Ocean, represented by Matthew Dickson, has won the 2019 EIT (European Institute of Innovation & Technology) VENTURE Award. The award recognises the pioneering work that has made CorPower a global leader in the ocean energy sector.

Patrik Möller, CEO, CorPower Ocean

EIT InnoEnergy were first to believe in our product and were ready to actually put money into it, thus facilitating attracting other investors. We also received valuable business advice and continue to keep EIT InnoEnergy up to date with our latest developments.

Skeleton Technologies will supply ultracapacitor systems to Škoda Electric, for 114 trams to be delivered by Škoda Transportation to Mannheim, Heidelberg and Ludwigshafen in Germany. The company has also signed a large-scale deal with Medcom to supply ultracapacitor energy storage to Warsaw Tram in Poland, as well as to many others.

Supported by EIT InnoEnergy, start-up Skeleton Technologies is the European market leader for ultracapacitors and energy storage systems for transportation and grid applications. Their ultracapacitor system recuperates the braking energy of the trams and uses it for re-acceleration, saving energy and decreasing costs. Ultracapacitors are ideal for this application due to their high efficiency, reliability and ability to recharge in seconds. These solutions will be soon used in Germany and Poland.

Additionally Skeleton Technologies is bringing to market anew ultracapacitor product platform, the SkelCap SCA0300, to address the fast-growing manufacturing and warehouse logistics markets. The strict power quality requirements in manufacturing are driving the demand for ultracapacitor-based UPS solutions; so the SCA0300 product platform is ideally suited to systems ensuring high-powerquality to protect sensitive manufacturing equipment.

The growth of warehouse and fulfillment centre robotics is driven by the rapid growth of e-commerce. Changing consumer behaviour and expectations of quick deliveries are creating new opportunities for ultracapacitor-powered solutions. This is especially true in intralogistics where shuttle and AGV (Automated Guided Vehicle) manufacturers are replacing batteries with ultracapacitor solutions, due to power, reliability and lifespan advantages.

Lately Taavi Madiberk, Skeleton CEO, also discussed Estonian-German co-operation with Mr. Peter Altmaier, the German Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy, in Tallinn. He advocated for the need to implement the right policies and framework to facilitate the emergence of European champions in the cleantech sector.

Taavi Madiberk, CEO, Skeleton Technologies

Projects like these show that we do not need to go to China or the United States for battery and ultracapacitor production. Skeleton has proven that energy storage manufacturing is alive and well in Europe, and European companies can work together to bring huge benefits to the European industry and market.

2019 was a great year for Graphmatech, award-winning materials startup part of EIT InnoEnergy Highway®. Graphmatech achieved world record values for conductive engineering plastics, was among the 33 most innovative tech companies in Sweden, made remarkable improvement in the processability of metal powders and launched a fully conductive engineering grade polymer for additive manufacturing.

Graphmatech scientists achieved world record values for conductive engineering plastics which has at least 100 times lower resistivity than achieved before in filaments for 3D printing. This is a further milestone in the success story of Graphmatech, that began with foundation in 2017, followed by patented technology and material Aros Graphene®, great collaborations with Swedish, Swiss and German key industries, and being awarded Nanotech company of the year in the Nordics in 2018.

Later, the prestigious Swedish “33-listan” acknowledged the 33 most innovative tech companies in Sweden that have the potential of becoming tomorrow’s stock market giants. We are proud to count two EIT InnoEnergy-backed start-ups among them – Graphmatech and Swedish Algae Factory.

Graphmatech recently achieved remarkable improvement in the processability of metal powders. It solved a major challenge of the metal additive manufacturing (AM) industry with its graphene technology – another milestone in the success story of the company.

By the end of the year, Graphmatech and Add North 3D announced the release of their first jointly-developed product – the Koltron G1. The product is the result of over 12 months of intensive research and development with a super material as an outcome – a fully conductive engineering-grade polymer for additive manufacturing.

Mamoun Taher, CEO, Graphmatech

Being a CEO of the fast-growing Graphmatech has never stopped me from being at the lab doing innovative and outside of the box experiments. One late afternoon, I went to the lab with an intention to investigate the influence of a graphene-based material on the magnetic properties of metal powders. Unexpected behaviour of metal powder was observed after treatment with the graphene-based additive.

Meva Energy has signed a market collaboration agreement with Örebro Gasteknik, a leading provider of industrial gas burners and installation services in the Scandinavian market.

Meva Energy provides small, circular energy systems with a minimum of distribution and parasitic losses. Their product is a unique patented biomass gasification system. A stable technology that in contrast to many other renewable energy sources is not dependent on the weather, i.e. sun, wind, rain or waves. The most important feature of the technology is its ability to produce true high quality gas.

With more than 25 years of experience, Örebro Gasteknik is an established supplier of burner and heat solutions to a wide range of industrial process applications. Örebro Gasteknik also holds the distribution and sales rights for several global burner producers. Traditional industrial gas consumption has been synonymous with natural gas or LPG but Örebro Gasteknik recognizes the need and growing interest for renewable gases of various types.

Key to get a profitable gasification process is to utilize low cost biomass. Meva Energy’s gasification technology could use fine fraction, second generation biomass residues, i.e. sawdust, wood fibers, agricultural residues etc.

The main use of biomass should be to create products such as food, houses, furniture etc. and only the residues and the used material should be used as an energy source. Today there are an excess of biomass residues, especially the low value biomass that Meva Energy utilize. A variety of feedstock could be used and if necessary it will be pre-processed, e.g. dryed (more than 15% moisture) or grinded (larger than 1,5mm). The biomass handling system will be adopted towards the local available biomass.

Mats Billberger, CEO of Örebro Gasteknik, says: ”There is now a clear market pull for renewables within the gas industry and we recognize the Meva technology as a very attractive solution for many of our existing customers. The Meva gas has been successfully tested with many of our products and we see great potential in combining our competence and gas burner products with Meva gas plants.”

Niclas Davidsson, CEO, Meva Energy

We are very happy about this collaboration. Not only is Örebro Gasteknik a leading gas equipment installation company but we already have more than one year of experience of working closely with their team in customer pre-projects and mutual R&D work. This cooperation comes naturally and we see many interesting projects where our combined offerings will enable industries to cut CO2 emissions by switching to our low-calorific renewable gas.

EIT InnoEnergy-supported start-up Ferroamp went public by carrying out an IPO and preparing to list on Nasdaq First North. Ferroamp’s journey has been an exciting process, and EIT InnoEnergy has played a supportive role all along the way.

Ferroamp joined the Highway® in 2013 to take full advantage of EIT InnoEnergy’s business acceleration services and grew significantly as a result. Ferroamp improved and protected their technology, created a winning team, carried out customer workshops, visited trade fairs, recruited experts to the board of directors, gained insights on market and regulatory changes, and raised significant funding.

Success starts with a great idea – in this case, a valuable innovation improving the utilisation of three-phase power supply. Ferroamps offering has since then been developed to an award-winning platform for power and energy optimisation. This enables customers to benefit from increased self-consumption, lower grid connection fees and reduced energy losses.

The EnergyHub system is a modular DC-nanogrid for future proof integration of PV, battery storage and EV-charging in buildings – while Ferroamp Powershare enables these structures to commonly share those resources. They have also developed the EnergyHub Cloud service that provides actionable energy efficiency insights to customers by monitoring and collecting data, which also allows Ferroamp to further customise their services. These are innovative products that are right on time for the energy market.

For Ferroamp, this journey so far has been full of well- -earned achievements, and they know this next big step of going public will bring even more. With three patent families under their belt, over 400 successful installations with proven results, and an increase in sales of 53% just last year – their goals are within reach. They will also adapt their products for large volume manufacturing and continue to expand sales from their current strong Swedish market to other Nordic countries, the Netherlands, France, Italy and Finland.

Björn Jernström, Co-founder and CTO, Ferroamp

We are so happy to now be listed on Nasdaq First North. Our journey to this IPO has been an exciting process, and EIT InnoEnergy has accompanied us all along the way. The long-term and tailored support we have received has been very valuable to grow our business and take us to where we are today.

Principle Power, supported by EIT InnoEnergy, is aglobal energy technology company that enables solutions for harvesting the full potential of the world’s renewable energy resources, with afocus on unlocking the best offshore wind sites, previously inaccessible due to water depths or bottom conditions. 2019 was a year of great achievements for the organisation.

In autumn, a consortium of partners led by Principle Power was awarded a $3.6 million grant from the U.S Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) to develop, validate and operate DIGIFLOAT, the world’s first digital twin software tailored to floating offshore wind applications.

This digital twin model will be a real-time, high-fidelity numerical representation of the WindFloat Atlantic (WFA) Project, which will be one of the world’s first floating offshore wind farms, once the installation is completed off the coast of northern Portugal.

In winter, after being successfully connected the first platform of the WindFloat Atlantic wind farm supplied(to the grid in Portugal) the energy generated by its 8,4 MW wind turbine – the world’s largest installed on a floating platform.

The commissioning of this floating wind farm contributed to the diversification of energy supply, provided access to untapped offshore wind resource and represented asignificant technological leap towards a carbon-free economy.

Due to further developments, the French oil supermajor Total is set to make its debut in the floating wind sector, with what could be the world’s biggest array. A near-100MW project is being developed off Wales with UK marine renewables outfit Simply Blue Energy, following the signing of a partnership deal.

The 96MW Erebus development, which is expected to be brought into operation in 2025/26. In 70 metres of water, some 45km off Pembroke it’s seen as the flagship of amore ambitious build-out in the Celtic Sea basin, which is calculated to be home to a potential of 50GW of capacity.

João Metelo, CEO, Principle Power

We have been working with Simply Blue Energy on the development of these sites for some time now and it is really gratifying to see the first project taking shape. Erebus represents a major step for the industry, both in terms of its size and location in Welsh waters, demonstrating that the potential for floating wind in the UK is not limited to Scotland.

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KEY PROJECTS