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13 SMEs chosen for HSBC Climate Innovation Platform

The Climate Innovation Platform (CIP) has welcomed its first cohort of 13 SME’s focussed on driving energy technology innovation.

Supported by HSBC UK and delivered by the University of Birmingham in partnership with Energy Systems Catapult, the CIP programme will provide the SME’s with tailored packages of support to drive the commercialisation of innovative energy products and services.

Each of the 13 SMEs will have access to: business engagement, acceleration and incubation support; start‐up mentoring; market research reports; funding and investor opportunities; advice on regulations; a dedicated support team  as well as incubation space at Tyseley Energy Park.

Over the two-day induction, the SMEs will receive a taster of the support available; this includes private surgery sessions to discuss the needs and challenges facing each individual business.

Professor Martin Freer, director of the Birmingham Energy Institute and Energy Research Accelerator said: “It has been a pleasure to welcome these 13 businesses on to the CIP programme.

“Whilst unique in the nature of their businesses, the cohort is united in its commitment to drive the development of low carbon technology solutions and we are delighted to be able to support these SME’s as they research, test and grow their innovations.”

Paul Jordan, Energy Launchpad business lead at Energy Systems Catapult, said: “We’ve selected an exciting mix of innovators for this challenge – from start-ups working in the emerging hydrogen economy and blockchain-backed green finance, through to SMEs developing cutting-edge heating, energy storage and digital platforms for improving building performance.”

“Energy Systems Catapult will be bringing our independent, whole-systems approach to support businesses with market analysis and business model innovation through to assessments on digital or investor readiness.

“We also offer unique building simulation and real-world testing to ensure system integration challenges are overcome and consumer insights captured. All of this is aimed at helping turn innovators into successful entrepreneurs.”

More information about the CIP programme is available here.

First cohort for the Climate Innovation Platform

Connected Response has developed a cutting-edge HeatSage retrofit technology to intelligently manage homes with electric storage heaters and water heating. They aim to release 1.5m households  from the shackles of Economy 7-type tariff night-time charging and associated fuel poverty.

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Data Catalyst delivers Smart Data as a Service – simply, and securely – taking the lessons of Open Banking and apply them to smarten-up shared data across sectors. Their first product, SME-ESG, delivers Environmental, Social and Governance scoring for Small and Medium Enterprises.

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Demand Logic is a multi-award-winning Building Analytics platform which provides actionable insight to reduce carbon emissions, increase Indoor Air Quality and improve maintenance in buildings. Crucially, the comprehensive and scalable analytics provide can identify the actual cause, not just the effect, of poor performance – providing users with solutions to improving energy efficiency.

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The MECHAPRES team brought together innovators from Vert Rotors, Kelvin Thermotech, Energineering Solutions, and Business Insight, to develop a first-of-a-kind multi-energy-vector thermo-mechanical storage technology.  This versatile, modular design that is applicable in a variety of markets that require decentralised storage, from small neighbourhoods to commercial parks and industrial waste heat recovery opportunities.

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EVC PowerTech creates rapid electric vehicle charging solutions for trucks, buses, cars and vans. They do this by installing a single megawatt site-wide charger, that can then charge between five and fifty vehicles simultaneously.

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Everimpact helps cities and industries measure, reduce, and monetise its greenhouse gas emissions. They have developed an IoT software that combines satellite, ground sensors, and AI data to establish clients’ carbon footprint and are the leading provider of real-time measures of CO2 emissions at asset and territory level.

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Faraday Battery Limited manufactures battery packs between 0.1 MW to 1 MW scale for critical transport markets including electric trains, electric buses, and electric aircrafts. The small, light battery pack is designed to perform in extreme weather conditions using lithium ion cell chemistry, innovative thermal management, and power electronics with six patents for these innovations.

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Kendra Labs, a subsidiary of Fintricity Ltd, is a cloud native data and AI platform company, focusing on Sustainability/ Environmental, Social and Governance; and Customer Data Platforms for SMEs/Enterprise. They help enterprises to collect, measure and embed decisioning and offset carbon emissions for their businesses.

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Nomad Energy Solutions is a technology-based service provider with a consulting wrap. Nomad offer deep insights into building behaviour,  gathering real time data to enable precision performance analytics and control. The insights provided to their customers enable improved energy performance and occupant comfort and wellbeing, creating improved asset value for both public and commercial property owners.

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PyTerra is developing a blockchain-backed platform which trades ESG tokens across multiple parties to raise low carbon project funding. The PyTerra platform is a sophisticated solution to three complex problems: CSR delivery for corporates, project pipelines for impact investors and seed finance for low carbon developers.

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Steamology was founded to commercially exploit the technology legacy of a successful land speed world record attempt and explore the potential of clean green renewable hydrogen steam. The company deliver scalable and modular solutions for industrial steam heat and power, embracing the hydrogen economy, eliminating emissions and replacing fossil fuels and fossil fuel engines.

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Sygensys is developing demand management and energy storage systems that allow effective use of renewable energy sources. Their vision is to leverage the incredible potential of bi-directional power flow from electric vehicles and battery energy storage systems to help balance electricity supply and demand, both on public grids and local microgrids.

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Veritherm UK are leading innovators in building performance measurement. Their Veritherm Testing solution is a unique and disruptive method for assessing the thermal performance of homes. The technology creates an opportunity to improve construction practices, reduce energy bills for occupiers and reduce CO2 emissions helping the UK to meet its Net-Zero obligations.

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CIP will support up to 100 SMEs over a four-year incubation programme, commencing in July 2021. Innovators and businesses are now invited to apply for CIP’s first ‘Low Carbon Energy Solutions, Innovator Challenge’ aimed at supporting innovations in the following areas*:

  • Innovative low carbon generation or infrastructure technologies into the built environment.
  • Low carbon heating and/or cooling innovations for the built environment.
  • Leveraging end-user, infrastructure and network data to create new digital platforms, services and business models that accelerate the transition to net zero.
  • Innovations that would accelerate the adoption of Energy from Waste.
  • Innovative hydrogen generation solutions for deployment in the transport or heating sectors.
  • Innovation which accelerates the adoption of electric vehicle use.
  • Energy storage and smart local energy systems innovations for network optimisation.
  • Solutions enabling active, interoperable control systems that deliver more efficient and flexible operation of local energy systems and/or networks.

* Other areas will be considered on a case by case basis.

Businesses selected for CIP will have access to:

  • Business engagement support through University of Birmingham’s ATETA programme, offering access to research expertise and facilities for SME’s to improve efficiency and test new ideas.
  • Incubation and acceleration support through Energy system Catapult Energy Launchpad, which will also help design the innovation challenges and provide technical assessment of applications.

Successful applicants to this programme, may also selected to apply to the global Climate Solutions Partnership1 innovation accelerator, powered by WWF’s Impactio platform, which will help further scale climate solutions internationally, supporting business innovations in partnership with leading universities, research institutes, incubators and accelerators.

SME’s can register to hear from the Energy Launchpad team about the challenge calls they have run, the SME’s they have supported and the new opportunities on the horizon.

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