Exciting news arrived for the sustainable energy innovation community in Europe and Americas by the beginning of September 2020. The growing accelerator EIT Innoenergy announced on the 11st its expansion to the US through a partnership with Greentown Labs. The cooperation will be headquartered in Boston, US “cleantech capital”, and it’s Innoenergy’s first strategical move towards the North American market. The new office has the goal to be a bridge between American entrepreneurs and Innoenergy’s European ecosystem of more than 500 industrial partners. The goal of this collaboration is to create new opportunities for transatlantic partnerships, research, and sales, shortening the time to market while maximizing Innoenergy ventures’ Impact. This comes as great news to the more than 380 start-ups supported by the accelerator, including the growing number of ventures within the hydrogen economy. Some of the hydrogen-related companies supported are HyMeth, HySiLabs, Mebius, Celcibus, Ataway, and Home Power Solutions, spanning from the entire hydrogen value chain, and possibly benefiting from an expansion to US market. About EIT-Innoenergy EIT-Innoenergy is a sustainable energy ecosystem that was initially founded and funded by the European government. They have invested in nearly 500 assets, providing returns expected around €16 billion. Besides, Innoenergy is at the forefront of technological development by partnering with Europe’s best engineering schools. Until last year, 1,200 alumni have graduated from Master’s and Ph.D., many of whom work for prestigious companies such as Tesla, Siemens, Total, and Procter & Gamble. More than 500 key players from across the energy value chain are involved with the institution, from 18 different countries, creating an extraordinarily diverse and rich environment. Startups involved with Innoenergy innovation environment: Ataway (France) Ataway is implementing hydrogen refuelling stations for fleets from 1 to 30 cars and fleets of bicycles. The company generates on-site green hydrogen for mobility solutions, including options to recharge electric battery cars. HyMeth (Denmark) The start-up is developing an innovative Electromagnetic Alkaline Electrolyser for Sustainable Hydrogen and methane from Electricity and Water. HySiLabs (France) Throughout several years of experience, HySiLabs is solving challenges of transportation and storage of hydrogen. The company uses a liquid carried based in silicon hydride solutions, providing stable, non-toxic, non-explosive, and long storage-life. Via HySiLabs’ solution, hydrogen can benefit from the same advantages of traditional fuel logistics, facilitating hydrogen’s market penetration. Celcibus (Sweden) This Swedish start-up is aiming to revolutionize the PEM fuel cell industry with an innovative PGM-free catalyst. Celcibus’s catalyst can provide good fuel-cell performance for a fraction of traditional catalyst costs, while using widely available and sustainably sourced raw-materials. Mebius (Slovenia) Mebius is working on the development of a low-platinum fuel-cell catalyst with the promise to lower productions costs by 33%. Home Power Solutions (HPS) (Germany) This Berlin-based start-up provides integrated solar to hydrogen systems that allows houses to completely disconnect from the grid. By integrating electrolyzers, fuel cells and hydrogen storage to an energy management system, HPS optimize households’ energy consumption, providing electricity, heat and climatization all year long. Enapter (Germany) Recently involved with EIT-Innoenergy, Enapter is a leading green-hydrogen start-up that manufactures modular AEM electrolyzers. The company has a worldwide market presence with success cases in many applications and industries.

Gabriel Marinho Silva, Contributor

Gabriel is a Brazilian chemical engineer with 5+ years of experience working in diverse fields in France, Brazil and Sweden. Now currently finishing a double MSc degree in Renewable Energy, Gabriel is dedicated to fight climate change through hydrogen technologies.

World Leader Sustainable Energy Accelerator Expands to the US