Energy storage is critical to help us unlock the full potential of renewable energy. Without energy storage systems, we would not be able to affordably reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions. It is a key step to enable low carbon systems that will help fight climate change and make affordable energy more accessible to everyone.

New York is increasingly becoming known as one of the global energy storage hubs in the world, thanks to Biden’s Build Back Better Plan that will invest billions into climate and clean energy among other select industries. Our New York Program, The Clean Fight that was recently selected to manage US$10M Empire Technology Prize to advance building decarbonization brings you ten growth-stage companies in the latest cohort to accelerate New York’s position as a U.S. hub for energy storage.

The program will focus on battery and energy storage solutions, development and manufacturing. The goal is to help these companies to successfully and rapidly scale sales and manufacturing in New York. To facilitate this, each of the selected companies is eligible for:

• a range of tailored benefits, valued at up to $100,000 per company to support capacity building, deployments or manufacturing capabilities in New York;
• hands-on matchmaking with industry leading customer and capital partners;
  bespoke support services; and
• expert insight into navigating the New York State market.

Based in Europe, Australia and North America, and working across the value chain, listed below are the ten transformative companies. We’re excited to see how they work together and with our partners to aggressively advance the clean energy transition, while boosting economic opportunity and job creation for all.

Cells & Packs

Cadenza Innovation, based in Connecticut, makes novel battery packs designed to address one of the greatest concerns with Lithium-Ion batteries – fire prevention, making them safer, more reliable and affordable.

NY’s Electrovaya makes batteries with an exceptional combination of high energy density, safety and longevity, making them particularly well suited to heavy use vehicles such as electric trucks and buses.

Energy Storage Systems

Toronto’s e-Zinc makes battery cells that store electrical energy within zinc metal, storing hundreds of hours of energy at a significantly lower cost. This can dramatically improve the value proposition of intermittent electricity such as wind and solar.

Based in Australia, Glaciem Cooling’s heat pump technology provides heating and cooling to commercial and industrial customers, combined with a phase change thermal battery to provide integrated energy storage, for improved efficiency and cost.

Buffalo, NY based Viridi designs and builds distributed energy storage systems that are affordable, scalable and safe enough for use in occupied buildings, providing on-demand power for industrial, medical, commercial and residential applications.

Mobile & Mobility Systems

Sweden’s Elonroad produces dynamic EV charging solutions embedded into roads, allowing for charging on the go. This also enables battery sizes to be reduced by up to 80%.

Portable Electric, based in Vancouver, makes portable, battery-based generators to replace gas and diesel generators, providing clean, silent power on demand. Their systems are used on job sites, for emergency EV and fleet charging, and as backup power.

Distributed Energy Resources

Canadian company eCAMION delivers a Distributed Energy Resource solution for customers looking to manage batteries, solar installations, and EV chargers to maximize efficiency while minimizing cost and strain to the grid.

OhmConnect, based in California, builds Virtual Power Plants by connecting to residential batteries, EVs and smart thermostats, reacting in real time to the needs of the grid, reducing reliance on high-pollution peaker plants and lowering GHG emissions.

Austin, Texas based Yotta Energy produces distributed energy products, including EV chargers and the first solar battery that integrates behind rooftop solar panels. The integrated battery significantly reduces installation costs, along with its plug-and-play design that means if you can install a solar module, you can install their battery.

Learn more about our New York program, The Clean Fight designed to help the world’s best growth-stage startups significantly scale their business in New York State, while boosting economic opportunity and job creation for all. The Clean Fight is also a member of the winning New Energy New York coalition, who were awarded $113M as part of the Biden Administration’s Build Back Better Regional Challenge.

CalSEED’s Prototype Award winners represent the next generation of clean tech entrepreneurs… 

The seven newest awardees – Startups Tolo, ALD Solutions, RePurpose, Gridware, Hago Energetics, Parthian Energy, and Leap Photovoltaics – were selected this year to receive CalSEED’s Prototype award of $450,000 to continue to develop their breakthrough innovations for batteries, storage, energy efficiency, and renewable generation.

Not only are they solving critical energy issues in California and beyond, but they are also positioning themselves to take advantage of the Inflation Reduction Act. As one the most significant climate related bill in US history, this could be a game changer for clean energy startups across the country.

Find out what these early stage startups think about the IRA.

RePurpose Energy makes lithium ion batteries a sustainable solution.

REPURPOSE ENERGY

RePurpose Energy is creating a circular economy for EV batteries by creating reliable, low-cost “second-life” energy storage systems. Their turnkey solution involves testing, reassembling and redeploying used electric vehicle batteries for use as storage for solar energy. The repurposing of used EV batteries safely gives them 7-10 years in “second-life” as energy storage systems at around half the cost of new battery alternatives.

“In our view, the IRA is the single most important piece of climate legislation in US history, and it presents a myriad of opportunities for clean tech startups such as RePurpose Energy. Especially exciting are the investment and production tax credits. These incentives will reduce the capital costs of scaling our EV battery repurposing facilities, enhance the profitability of our second-life battery products, and augment our customers’ demand for solar PV + second-life battery systems. In addition, the bill will accelerate EV adoption, which will in turn increase available supplies of retired EV batteries.“ Joseph Lacap, CTO Repurpose Energy

Founders Thomas Karagianes (left) and Iain McClatchie (right) at TOLO

TOLO

Tolo is making in-person inspection of utility infrastructure a thing of the past with their remote inspection platform. Tolo pairs state-of-the-art cameras with unmanned aerial

vehicles (UAVs) and collects thousands of detailed photos from every angle of a utility tower, capturing images at greater detail than what is visible to an inspector in the field at a lower cost. Inspectors can view these images through a novel software application custom-built for utility inspection which provides them  with advanced tools and greater inspection freedom and flexibility than field inspection, resulting in more accurate, shareable, monitorable inspections that drive better maintenance decisions and enhanced grid reliability. Remote inspection creates unique benefits impossible through traditional approaches, like inspection review by regulators, machine learning-assisted inspection, and year-over-year comparison.

“Tolo applauds the Inflation Reduction Act as a much-needed first step in the fight against climate change and a long-overdue investment in modernizing our aging energy infrastructure. Working in utility inspection, we know first hand the damage that inadequately maintained infrastructure can cause, and we look forward to helping support the newly created transmission infrastructure resulting from this bill. Many of the most innovative climate change solutions in clean energy have come from our startup peers, and we hope the IRA will help provide the investment these technologies and companies need to shine.” Thomas Karagianes, CEO Tolo

Wilson Hago, CEO at Hago Energetics looking down the line of cattle.

HAGO ENERGETICS

Hago Energetics is working to convert agricultural waste from dairy farms in the Central Valley of California into green hydrogen that can be used for long-haul trucking and industrial applications. Their technology works by processing biogas generated from cow manure waste in a novel chemical reactor to ultimately convert the biogas into hydrogen. Using just renewable energy as well as waste wood as a catalyst for this chemical conversion, makes their  innovative process distinctly unique.

“It is encouraging to see the Federal government incentivize the production of clean hydrogen with the recently passed Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. The IRA allows us to obtain a Production Tax Credit of $3 per kg of hydrogen or an Investment Tax Credit of 30% given our expected negative carbon footprint. These incentives will enable us to attract investors quicker to our projects, for a faster deployment of our technology.” Wilson Hago, CEO Hago Energetics

Mahshid Roumi, Co-founder and Vice President at Parthian Energy.

PARTHIAN ENERGY

Parthian Energy is dedicated to reducing the cost of battery manufacturing with an intelligent screening technology.

The “Parthian Electromagnetic Sensor (PES”) can detect internal defects in lithium-ion battery cells, which enhances safety and enables higher energy density cells to be deployed into EVs and grid storage with much less risk of lithium-ion batteries overheating. With additional CalSEED prototype funding they will develop a scalable prototype, demonstrate the feasibility of reducing the duration and cost of battery quality control, as well as perform pilot testing on a battery cell manufacturing line.

“A large portion of the most valuable businesses in history started as highly technical startups, at the right place and right time. The IRA can help provide the right conditions for the exponential growth of several key industrial sectors, provided that a meaningful portion of the funding reaches small businesses, who are developing groundbreaking new technologies. No amount of funding is enough, if the government stays too conservative and keeps feeding the incremental growth of the traditional technologies by the old businesses, who have not been able to invent new markets for decades.” – Mahshid Roumi, Co-founder and Vice President Parthian Energy

David Needle Berneyman, Founder and CEO at Leap PV in his lab.

LEAP PHOTOVOLTAICS

Leap Photovoltaics is developing a new process to manufacture solar cells. Their unique approach allows crystalline silicon solar cells to be built without wafers, instead directly depositing a layer of silicon microparticles to a surface that absorbs sunlight and converts it to electricity, achieving the same performance and reliability as traditional solar cells at half the cost using entirely local supply chains.

“The passing of the IRA also could not be more timely. The IRA provides strong incentives to manufacture not only solar modules, but also upstream components like solar cells here in the US. Leap is uniquely poised to take advantage of these incentives by linking the parts of the supply chain that already exist in the US and doing so with a manufacturing process that requires dramatically lower capex to bring online and dramatically lower cost in operation.

“Domestic ratepayers who now have easier access to demand-side subsidies through the modifications to the solar ITC and new PTC will also be able to reap the economic benefits of a domestic end-to-end supply chain, while also knowing that all the components in their solar panel were produced to the highest product, labor, and environmental standards.” David Berney Needleman, Founder and CEO Leap PV

Gridware’s wildfire prevention technology powers a grid that is smarter and more reliable.

GRIDWARE

Gridware is working to create a future where suburban wildfires are a thing of the past. Using multi-sensory perception and edge AI, their wildfire prevention technology continuously monitors a grid that is smarter and more reliable than ever before. The system detects faults in the grid early and in real-time to enable inspectors to schedule timely repairs and rapidly respond to ignitions so disastrous wildfires can be avoided. With the CalSEED Prototype award, Gridware will advance analytical tool development and continue to improve fire prevention capabilities.

“Gridware already has established partnerships with co-operative utilities in California and Utah. Our products are well positioned to benefit from section 60201 of the IRA, as they enable these utilities to both adapt and mitigate against the negative impacts of climate change on their critical infrastructure, especially as it relates to wildfire ignition.” Timothy Barat, Co-founder & CEO Gridware

ALD TECHNICAL  SOLUTIONS

ALD Wire Wrap offers innovative advanced composite material and solutions to accelerate penetration of renewable and clean energies.

As our grid infrastructure is aging and becoming more stressed with new electricity generation sources, women-owned, clean-tech company ALD Technical Solutions is commercializing a patented novel technology that will structurally strengthen grid lines by using advanced hybrid composite materials.

ALD’s Composite WiRe Wrap increases ampacity, the power capacity of existing grid lines, and extends lifespan while also addressing thermal sagging, with NO downtime. This is a key requirement for achieving safe, resilient and reliable 100% renewable energy goals.

Utilities are building new lines to increase power capacity of grid lines and placing power lines underground to mitigate utility caused wildfires. Current approach is extremely expensive, and it takes many years. It would cost well over $100 billion to place across PG&E’s entire territory underground. At the current pace, moving all of California’s utility lines underground would take 1,000 years, according to the California Public Utilities Commission. ALD Technical Solutions’ Composite WiRe Wrap is a patented, lightweight, high strength, fast, easy to install, long lasting and cost-effective composite reinforcement system. This technology can withstand high temperatures and can be installed and cured in-place around existing power lines by our robotic installer.

“[The] Inflation Reduction Act will not only drive the acceleration of clean energy growth but also it will boost the economy through clean energy and green jobs. Like the internet boom in the late 1990’s, [the] IRA will  accelerate adaptation of clean energy and green jobs.” Davoud Zamani, CEO & Co-Founder ALD Technical  Solutions

About CalSEED

The CalSEED initiative is the first program in a robust energy innovation pipeline the California Energy Commision (CEC) has created with the Electric Program Investment Charge (EPIC) program. CalSEED provides two levels of funding: a Concept Award of $150,000 and a Prototype Award of $450,000. Each year, winners of CalSEED’s Concept Awards are eligible to compete for a Prototype Award in the annual Business Plan Competition put on in collaboration with national incubator CleanTech Open (CTO). Last fall, 23 CalSEED Concept Awardees participated in CTO, with 7 startups standing out to the judges due to their innovative efforts and solutions for batteries, storage, energy efficiency and renewable generation – areas that are critical to meeting California’s ambitious climate goals.

New Energy Nexus CEO, Danny Kennedy, takes a hands-on look at Azura – a startup in Indonesia opening an ocean of opportunities for marine electrification.

I saw the future last July behind a Circle K near Denpasar in Indonesia. For those of you that have been to Bali any time this century you might know these countless convenience stores. These are fillup shops for the 4 million scooter and moped riders across the island. Not only can you get your expensive gas for your motorbike, but you can also buy all kinds of goodies inside. This includes some crazy coffee boba caramel combo drinks I have not had anywhere else. But I digress.

The future of electrification, behind a Circle K

New Energy Nexus CEO Danny Kennedy at a SWAP station in Bali

The first thing that struck me was the Swap station sitting on the forecourt by the front door. It’s a simple container for batteries to power the growing number of electric scooters in Indonesia. Each Swap station has three bins, two of which have batteries in various states of charge, while the other one is empty. A rider comes in to Circle K to fill up. They take their battery out, put it in the empty bin to charge. This automagically unlocks one of the other two batteries that has 100% charge. They take this “full” battery and put it into their bike, and in less than a minute they’re off to the races!

There are now 400 of these Swap stations in Circle Ks on Bali and Java, and growing. As the electric advantages of motorbike riding become known this company is going to crush it! To reiterate those advantages: e-scooters are better, faster, and cheaper. That’s right they perform better, take off quicker, are clean, quiet and most important cost less to fill and maintain. The Swap story above saves not only time but serious money for the rider.

Enter Azura: the startup electrifying Bali’s fishing craft

So minds blown, my team and I met the company we had come to see inside the Circle K.  Nadea Nabilla and her cofounder,  are electrification entrepreneurs with Azura (and in fact Nadea, just presented her innovation at the One Young World Summit by the Audi Environmental Foundation. These entrepreneurs are taking the same competitive advantage of electric motors to fisherfolk, with product offerings that are better, faster and cheaper than the infernal combustion engines that these folk have used for decades.

The design of the fishing craft is ancient and common across many of the thousands of islands in this archipelago nation. The modern engine was introduced last century and adapted to this design with a long drive shaft to get a propeller into the water over the gunnel. This is the “long tail motor” of many fishing craft, river boats and the like across Asia and Africa. The engine is often a heavy and rusted block of bits that break down a lot. And this connects to an old gas tank that costs a lot to fill.

Not so the electric version!

In Azura’s solution they have taken an off-the-shelf Mitsubishi electric motor. It has similar torque and power specs as the horsepower the engine puts out. It’s small and lightweight. The battery pack required to charge it for 75 miles of boat business fits in a single Pelican case. They can carry this into the compound to charge off the solar panels or older batteries bundled there. No muss no fuss. And the performance is better, faster, and cheaper.

Azura’s secret sauce

Azura’s battery pack case and a widget on the motor.

Azura’s secret sauce is a little widget that fits the electric motor to the propeller shaft. This may not be defensible but their true moat is the first mover advantage in a difficult but enormous market. I mean defensibility when I say moat but this is also to make a pun about Azura’s blue ocean opportunity. Replacing all the shitty engines on boats around Southeast Asia is a many hundred million addressable market and almost no-one is doing it! There is not a lot of blood in the water from cutthroat competition. It might actually be better if there was for Nadea and friends to have a bit of co-opetition to create supply chains and an e-boat ecosystem. For now they are the pioneers offering a better, faster and cheaper service, which should win.

Better and faster are obvious. Silence is golden to fisherfolk. And the process of fitting and fueling with solar is much easier and quicker in the daily routine for fisherfolk. Not to mention the take off speed an electric motor achieves compared to an old putt-putt two stroke! But cheaper it is not upfront. So when I say, these are cheaper it is a “total-cost of ownership” statement. Like many assets in the clean energy transition it comes down to OpEx versus CapEx. This is biz speak for Operating Expense versus Capital Expense.

A solution that pays back in 3 years (at least for now)

Upfront the electric bundle costs a lot – 10 times more than the old motor. As production scales and pieces of the kit get more standardized that cost will drop – like ICE cars and EVs. But for now, it is a lot. Yet over the life of the motor, which has fewer moving parts, needs no oil nor belts and thus little maintenance, it costs less to own and operate. And low to no fuel cost!

They “payback” in about three years. This means the savings make the upfront cost worth it in 36 months. So, what this bundle will need next is finance to speed up adoption. In many categories – like your cell phone – the way we pay for an expensive item is to put it on a monthly or “amortized” schedule. It is also how the car sold to the masses – a modern auto-loan pioneered by General Motors.

Nadea Nabilla, Co-founder at Azura (right) with local fisherfolk in Bali.

I expect Nadea and her team will be experimenting soon with financing options. She already has a rental agreement for some boats. And as she scales from 12 systems sold so far to hundreds and thousands and then hundreds of thousands it’ll get easier. The asset class will become better understood. The “performance” of loans and underwriting considerations such as how likely a fisherperson is to default will become known. Competition in debt products will come into the market and more and more boats will go electric!

It was so exciting to see this postcard from the future. Like Chinese cities today where the buses make no noise and spit out no fumes, I know someday soon I’ll be on an island in Asia with no motor noise. May it come soon! Full speed to Azura and their competitors.

Shine on!

Danny Kennedy is CEO of New Energy Nexus

Bonus note: For those of you that think this is more about impact in the lives of the fisherfolk than a decarbonization strategy, think again. These small bite markets for petroleum products (scooters and fishing boats) are one of the last strongholds of growth for big oil. At the end of the day, the climate struggle is about putting fossils out of business. Do you know what the biggest force so far in barrels of oil per day consumption destruction has been in the energy transition? Tesla I hear you say. Perhaps BYD for buses? No. Rikshaws and tuktuks. 

See below for the latest data from BloombergNEF.

The Overlooked Emitter 

The residential water heater – often unsightly and awkwardly installed in garages and closets – is an essential home appliance that is often overlooked when it comes to energy efficiency upgrades. This is despite the fact that gas-powered water heaters are the second largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in California’s building sector. Reaching ambitious greenhouse gas reduction goals will be virtually impossible without reimagining the residential water heater — and CalSEED Concept Awardee ZYD Energy is doing just that.

ZYD Energy’s Technology

The first step in decarbonizing residential water heaters is to replace all gas water heaters currently in use with electric heat pumps. The second — and potentially far more complex — step is to integrate electric heat pumps with the electric grid to ensure electricity from renewable energy sources, e.g. solar and wind, is used to heat water.  This is where ZYD Energy’s innovative LOCUS control technology comes in. LOCUS stands for load optimization control using storage and will enable heat pump water heaters to achieve grid-interactive efficient operations, which reduce customers’ energy bills, maximize renewable energy utilization, and minimize greenhouse gas emissions. ZYD Energy seeks to advance water heater technology through a three prong strategy:

• Integration: using controllable storage configurations to achieve large load flexibility for all heat pump water heater products and system designs, including those not feasible for conventional temperature controls.
• Optimization: using sophisticated computer algorithms to determine operational schedules according to time-dependent electricity supply conditions, including electricity price, demand response signals, renewable energy availability, and electricity carbon intensity.
• Connectivity: using IoT technologies to establish versatile data connection with users, building and grid management.

ZYD Energy’s Pathway to Success

ZYD Energy was founded by Dr. Yanda Zhang after many years of working in energy efficiency and his desire to develop something that could rapidly reduce emissions and energy consumption in the building sector. In 2017, shortly after he conceived LOCUS, Dr. Zhang received a CalSEED Concept award from the California Energy Commission’s EPIC program which supports early-stage clean entrepreneurs with critical seed funding and support. With the CalSEED Concept award he was able to continue to develop LOCUS as well as bring on recent UC Davis graduate Sophia Racke as a Business Development Manager. With Sophia on board, they focused on not only technical development of their product but also understanding the needs of their audience so that they could create a strong value proposition. As Sophia sees it, “Our solution isn’t just optimizing the performance of the heat pump water heaters but also changing the customers perspective to embrace a new paradigm of water heating.”

A key component of the CalSEED program is participating in CleanTech Open (CTO), a national accelerator program aimed at providing early-stage companies with the training and resources they need to launch and grow successful cleantech businesses. Dr. Zhang learned from CTO how to truly understand potential customers, not just focus on the technology,  “CTO encouraged us to conduct a survey with homeowners to understand from their perspective – the why – why do they care? What do they think about water heaters? With that knowledge we were able to develop a product that was oriented around customer-based solutions.”

The HeaterHive by ZYD Energy

ZYD Energy’s main customers are single family homeowners, multifamily building property owners, and building mechanical system designers. For homeowners, “There’s a need for a solution that’s both effective at reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the water heating systems and can also make the transition simple and appealing. By providing customers with additional value, we will make it more exciting and easier for them to adopt new clean energy technologies.”

To address this, ZYD has created an appealing package for single family homes. They’ve combined the LOCUS control technology with a heat pump water heater as well as a unique exterior design that offers home organization and decoration features. “We’re branding the single family package as HeaterHive to provide customers with a refreshing home improvement product and not just another water heater that they’re going to forget about.”

For multifamily buildings, ZYD Energy addresses a different challenge faced by building designers – how to design heat pump based water heating systems to serve multiple dwelling units. This requires a new knowledge of how different equipment and systems can be connected and controlled, as well as take significant efforts and time for the building design and construction industry to familiarize themselves with heat pump water heater based systems in those multifamily buildings. ZYD Energy provides a solution to simplify system design and installation. “The intention is that LOCUS control can function as a central interconnection of the different equipment in the water heating system so building and designing those complicated water heating systems can be simplified by connecting heating and storage equipment through the LOCUS control.”

ZYD Energy’s Next Step

The ZYD Energy team is well on their way to demonstrate the solution, having just received another EPIC Award – Advancing Next-Generation Heating, Cooling and Water Heating Systems – where they will be piloting their LOCUS systems in three low-income multifamily buildings in Northern California. The aim of these projects is to demonstrate the load flexibility for three different types of central heat pump water heating systems in multifamily buildings using ZYD Energy’s LOCUS technology with social and environmental benefits of lowering operating costs, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, improving electricity reliability, and reducing planning uncertainty.

Moving Forward

Dr. Zhang is hopeful that this opportunity will open doors for ZYD Energy to further collaborate with building design firms, expanding their business development opportunities. “I think our success is kind of a testament to California’s drive to achieve a clean energy transition. With support from California research funding like CalSEED or EPIC we have been able to grow our business. It’s also California’s decarbonisation goals that will continue to help support us as more and more areas have to replace their gas appliances with electric ones.”

New regulations covering China’s building sector could open up opportunities for more energy efficiency innovations. The market is ripe for startups to take advantage and accelerate the country’s clean energy transition, writes Yi Luo, a Climate Fintech Program Associate at New Energy Nexus China.

Skyline in Pudong Shanghai

China’s new General Code for Building Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Utilization (建筑节能与可再生能源利用通用规范) was formally implemented in April 2022, representing a big shift in the building and construction sector. It requires that all new, expanded and reconstructed buildings, as well as energy-saving renovations of existing buildings, be designed for energy efficiency. Data specifying the building’s energy consumption and carbon emission are also required.

Currently, there are no specific requirements for energy efficiency in the construction of new buildings, and instead only passive saving strategies like natural lighting and heat insulation are prioritized. Currently only energy efficiency disclosure is compulsory in China, but the industry is expected to evolve in the coming years with the expansion of the country’s energy efficiency regulations.

The new regulations introduced in April 2022 will impact the construction industry in three main ways.

Firstly, it covers the whole process of energy saving and renewable energy systems in newly constructed, existing, and reconstructing buildings. Conventional energy saving measures focus only on either material or construction process, but post-construction management will now receive more attention (source).

Secondly, the regulation enforces disclosure of energy consumption and carbon emissions. The Code specifies a comprehensive measurement and supervision standard, especially for buildings over 20,000m2.

Thirdly, there are more requirements for energy saving efficiency, compared to the 2016 energy efficiency code. The average energy saving efficiency in cold regions of the country will exceed 75%, 65% for other areas and 72% for public infrastructure (source, source).

Based on the “double-carbon” vision proposed by President Xi Jinping and the “Fourteenth Five-year Plan”, we estimate that the disclosure requirement is just a start, and compulsory application of energy saving strategies could come out within the next three years. In that time, we expect the industry to really take off.

How will China’s energy efficiency sector grow?

The value of the construction energy saving industry is estimated to reach around CNY 700 billion (USD 104 billion) in 2022 and the operation stage energy saving would be up to CNY 600 billion yuan (USD 89 billion) (source) (source).

Current energy saving solutions mainly cover the use of new energy, energy storage and batteries, and integrated central systems. As markets and technologies mature, the construction energy saving industry will evolve in some interesting ways.

Yan’an East Road Interchange, Shanghai, China (source)

Here are several ways entrepreneurs can take advantage:

1. Cooperate with residential telecommunication companies

Giants in China like Meidi, Huawei, and Xiaomi are all quite proactive in IoT and intelligent home systems. Start-ups with technologies in this area could cooperate with these companies to offer a bundle service. The energy saving solution system could merge as a core part of the intelligent home system. In addition to higher efficiency, another financial benefit are savings on reconstruction and installation costs.

Home telecommunication companies can also help startups access the market. These giants have gathered sound reputation, so cooperation with them also provides a quality endorsement for start-ups.

2. Cooperate with property management companies

Property companies like Wanda also proposed the idea of “AI + intelligent buildings or neighborhoods” in 2021(source). Supporting a property management company which controls a large neighborhood could create more synergy and efficiency – a win-win deal for each side of the business.

3. GIS and regional geographic measurement projects

An integrated platform could also link to other research and measurement activities. It could further integrate with energy networks based on blockchains and other technology, to help regulate and control the energy industry on a regional or national level.

4. Adopt or cooperate with clean energy, energy storage, and virtual power plants

As these are all ways to save energy, that could work together to construct an energy-saving ecosystem (source).

Yi Luo is a Climate Fintech Program Associate at New Energy Nexus China

_{[1] According to ‘China Construction Energy Consumption and Carbon Emission Report (2021)’ (《中国建筑能耗与碳排放报告（2021）》), in 2019, the construction operation stage consumed 1.03 billion tce (21.2% of total national energy consumption) and emitted 2.13 billion ton of carbon dioxide (21.6% of total national carbon emission). It’s estimated that the energy consumption and carbon emission would reach 1.192 billion ton of coal equivalent (tce) and 2.368 billion ton. The industry could create a potential economic value of 480~600 billion yuan (taking the energy saving efficiency as 25% and the coal price of 1600~2000 yuan per ton).}

EXCEL Accelerator is a growth-stage accelerator focused on the clean energy transition and climate change mitigation in China. Leveraging our connections in local government, academia and industry, EXCEL Accelerator provides growth-stage startups with technology/product expertise, pilot opportunities, and market expansion.

This year in Cohort 3, we are proud to be supporting 15 startups offering innovative climate solutions across various fields including clean tech, energy internet and carbon emission reduction. They also share the same vision – to contribute to China’s ‘’Dual Carbon’’ goal (to reach peak carbon use by 2030 and become carbon neutral by 2060).

Here are the finalists of 2022 EXCEL Accelerator Cohort 3:

Energy Internet Sector

TerraQuanta (大地量子)

TerraQuanta is a technology-driven company, it has established efficient data acquisition channels with global mainstream satellite data providers, integrating massive multi-source satellite data through a team of experienced remote sensing scientists, AI algorithm team and engineering team. TerraQuanta combines data fusion and algorithm development together to bring 600,000 meters’ data within reach and creates a “Data Encyclopedia of the Earth”.

At present, TerraQuanta has supported the application of more than 30 scenarios in the fields of agriculture, forest carbon-sink, agricultural insurance, infrastructure, environmental protection, and inclusive finance, scenarios include ground cover monitoring, crop yield estimation, water resources and water environment monitoring, forest resources dynamic monitoring, urban subsidence monitoring, etc.

BigData FinTech (大数金科)

BigData FinTech specializes in carbon emission management calculation, accounting and inventory system tools and carbon planning service provider. BigData FinTech was founded in 2016, the company uses industrial internet technology and cloud services to optimize the practical needs of accounting, inventory, internal control, collection, supervision and optimization of carbon emissions (carbon assets) for manufacturing enterprises such as steel, chemical, non-ferrous and construction industries.

The company can provide enterprise carbon data management, product carbon footprint calculation and CEPP certification for the traditional process manufacturing industry represented by metallurgy, building materials and chemical industry and their logistics supply chain.

Since BigData FinTech’s establishment, the team has been aiming at serving entities and keeping up with the industry, and striving to help China’s manufacturing industry achieve the ultimate goal of carbon neutrality.

Dayu

DAYU (大禹智芯)

DAYU is the first technology startup in China focusing on DPU since it was registered and founded. It is currently the leading company in the DPU field in China and is committed to building advanced DPU products with versatility through self-developed software, hardware, and chips.

Through existing and self-developed advanced chips, self-developed high-performance IaaS components and protocol-specific acceleration capabilities, DAYU provides a complete set of hardware and software products and services around DPUs, including chips, hardware products, system software, and application integration, and is committed to building a new generation of cloud computing engines to help users build leading IT infrastructures and accelerate the pace of enterprise digital transformation.

The company’s vision is to “unleash the application potential of high-speed networks in the way of DAYU, allowing enterprises to enjoy technology dividends selectively and helping them to build leading IT infrastructures well and fast”.

PH Edge Intelligence

PH Edge Intelligence (朋禾智能)

PH Edge Intelligence’s team has more than ten years of experience in online monitoring and fault diagnosis of power equipment, industrial IoT platform design, edge computing system architecture, and machine learning applications, and is experienced in sensors, data acquisition, industrial data reliability, and industrial artificial intelligence. As the earliest pioneer in industrial intelligence and edge computing applications in China, PH Edge Intelligence is now dedicated to promoting the application of industrial edge computing, IoT and artificial intelligence technologies in the power industry. The core team members include doctors and masters who graduated from Fudan University, Shanghai Jiao tong University, Tongji University and Xi’an Jiao tong University, as well as practitioners from National Instruments, General Electric, CyberInsight and other related fields within the industry. As a high-tech leading company in assisting the digital transformation of power grids, PH Edge Intelligence is a high-tech enterprise in Shanghai, a member of the Shanghai Industrial Internet Association, a member of the Shanghai Artificial Intelligence Industry Association, an Enabler of Microsoft AI and IoT Lab, and has applied a number of patents and software copyrights on the project. PH Edge Intelligence has also established cooperation with Schneider and Shanghai Electric and other companies within the power industry to jointly build an intelligent and digital power grid. The team’s vision is to become an industry-leading industrial intelligence and digitalization comprehensive solution service provider.

Deep Sensing Technology (清蓉深瞳)

Deep Sensing Technology was established in 2021. It is a scientific and technological innovation enterprise relying on the transformation of scientific and technological achievements of Tsinghua University and Sichuan Energy Internet Research Institute Tsinghua University. Deep Sensing Technology focuses on the frontier of energy Internet and the new power system and has developed a number of fundamental technologies for energy sensing and energy collecting with core independent intellectual property rights, mainly providing key sensing components, intelligent diagnostic algorithms and overall solutions for energy system deep situational awareness, energy equipment intelligence and carbon tracking. The 500kV-level conformal integrated multi-parameter intelligent power fitting is successfully applied to the real-time assessment of natural disasters, prediction, fault and risk warning of power line status, insulation characteristics, of transmission lines and corridors off, the invention won the Gold Award of the 2021 Geneva Invention Award. The first digital system embedded in circuit breaker equipment was successfully developed, realizing highly reliable non-intrusive measurement of mechanical parameters, operation process and temperature load of circuit breaker, and its online diagnosis and unattended through knowledge mapping and artificial intelligence algorithm.

Syitsing Energy Technology

Syitsing Energy Technology (西清能源)

Syitsing Energy Technology, founded in 2018, is a high-tech enterprise focusing on technology R&D in the field of energy digitization. The company’s goal is to help the digital transformation of the power industry through advanced technology and to promote the transformation of the energy and power industry with intelligent applications.

All of Syitsing Energy’s core team members graduated from Tsinghua University and other well-known universities, with rich industry experience and technology development capabilities. Syitsing Energy has passed the ISO management system certification and holds a number of invention patents with several technologies that are advanced in China.

The company has rich implementation experience and several finished projects in the fields of power system design and planning, energy storage active safety and digital twin technology application, etc. Currently, the company’s major products and solutions include:

• Active safety management and intelligent operation and maintenance system of energy storage power station and new EMS system
• Integrated source-grid-load-storage energy management platform
• Power system digital twin and active equipment operation and maintenance

MetaStar (元能星泰)

MetaStar is a cutting-edge technology enterprise jointly invested by Beijing Zhongguancun Development Frontier Enterprise Investment Fund, Taiyou Fund and Shuimu Tsinghua Alumni Capital. Relying on the R&D team from top universities such as Tsinghua, South China University of Technology and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the company is deeply engaged in vertical segments such as new energy, power grid, power plant, water conservancy and hydropower, oil, natural gas, chemical and coal, etc. MetaStar has independent core technologies and built the Meta-Universe digital twin PAAS toolchain and digital twin intelligent production operation platform series products to help enterprises implement digital transformation.

Macro AI

Macro AI Technology (暂元智数)

Macro AI Technology Co., Ltd. is an artificial intelligence high-tech company providing 3D vision solutions for high-precision industrial manufacturing, with an AI algorithm team led by PhDs from European and American top universities. Macro AI Technology upholds the mission of “empowering intelligent manufacturing with cutting-edge artificial intelligence technology” and practices the business philosophy of “technology for good to achieve self-realization”, and has solved the problems of ultra-complex machine vision recognition, inspection, positioning and measurement in the production process for many precision manufacturing enterprises. With the service attitude of “doing technology rigorously and winning the market with integrity”, Macro AI Technology has rapidly accumulated a good reputation in the industry and gained strong support from the government. In the future, Macro AI Technology will pay more attention to the construction of ecological partner system, and adhere to the “sharing is winning” cooperation concept, through strong alliance, to bring more industrial manufacturing enterprise customers with better, more economical, more intelligent Smart Factory solutions, to help industrial enterprises to achieve digital, intelligent transformation and development.

Environmental Protection Sector

Blue Future

Blue Future (湛蓝未来)

Blue Future was founded in 2014 and has been focusing on the R&D and industrialization of in-situ sludge reduction technology. The founder is a talent of the “Golden Panda” program from Chengdu Hi-Tech Industrial Development Zone, graduated from the aerobic granular sludge team of Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and published several papers in international journals. Blue Future’s environmental philosophy is “treating waste with waste”, and it has technologies such as iron sludge, bio-iron and iron batteries. Its honours include the second prize in the Chengdu-Shenzhen Twin Cities Entrepreneurship and Innovation Competition, the third prize in the Environmental Protection Innovation Competition of the Sichuan Department of Environmental Protection, the finalist enterprise of CCTV Chuang Ye Ying Xiong Hui, and the bronze medal in the Beijing Enterprises Water Group Cup 2020 among more than 570 projects recognized by experts, including academician Jun Ma. The corporate governance is well-organized, Blue Future is invested by CDHTIWENTURE Capital, Chengdu Industry Investment, Sichuan State-owned Assets Operation and Investment Administration and other provincial, municipal and district level state-owned capitals.

Senle Environment Technology

Senle Environment Technology (森乐环保)

Senle Environment Technology is a joint-stock enterprise launched by Chengdu Senle Group in 2018 to meet the needs of the national environmental protection industry, with a registered capital of 20 million yuan and fixed assets of 86 million yuan. Senle Environment is committed to the research and development and engineering transformation of gas preparation, separation, refinement, purification, drying, desulfurization, denitrification, hydrogen production, decarbonization, dust removal, ultra-low emission technologies in oil and gas, iron and steel coking, coal chemical, fine chemical, industrial gas, biochemical, fuel ethanol, glass, cement, thermal power, waste power generation, non-electricity industries: Senle Environment is proficient in gas purification and comprehensive utilization of coke oven gas, pressure swing adsorption, temperature swing adsorption, high-purity hydrogen production, SCR/SNCR denitration, ultra-high-porosity furnace denitrification, dry process, semi-dry desulfurization, flue gas removal and recovery of SO2, annealing furnace hydrogen recovery, nitrogen and hydrogen gas mixing, and other technologies. And Senle Environment has the production and manufacturing capacity of important components (adsorbent, desulfurizer, catalyst, program-controlled valve) and complete sets of skids.

By 2022, Senle Group has 1 EPC company, 2 manufacturing companies, 1 technology R&D company and 1 investment company. There are 3 regional operation centers and 12 offices in China generating 100-200 million yuan output value. Senle Group has established long-term cooperation with reputable universities such as Nanjing Tech University’s Adsorbent Research Institute, Fudan University’s Adsorbent Research Center, Sichuan University and Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics Chinese Academy of Sciences, becoming a comprehensive enterprise integrating technology research and development, engineering consulting and design, technical services, EPC, equipment manufacturing, plant operation and maintenance, special materials supply, investment and financing operation and other sectors.

Over the past twenty years, Senle Group has designed and built nearly one thousand large industrial plants for oil and gas, iron and steel coking, fine chemical, and non-electric industries.

Energy Finance Sector

Knowcarbon

KnowCarbon

Knowcarbon is a technology company focusing on carbon neutralization. It is committed to providing one-stop carbon services based on carbon accounting and blockchain for carbon account, carbon audit and carbon asset management. Knowcarbon was incubated in Tsinghua University and gathered team members from Tsinghua University, Cambridge University, Geneva University and other well-known universities at home and abroad, with rich academic resources. ​

Knowcarbon puts forward two products, carbon pet and enterprise carbon treasure: “carbon pet” aims to reduce emissions through the development of carbon accounts, develops carbon accounts in the form of pet cultivation, enables individual users to cultivate “carbon pet”, and obtains carbon points for the gift of a sustainable mall, forming a closed-loop product to help individuals reduce carbon emissions; Qitanbao uses blockchain technology to make its own carbon emission, carbon emission reduction, supervision, audit and other processes open and transparent, and relevant records can be traced and verified at any time, so as to reduce the cost of human carbon audit and ensure the transparency of carbon audit.

Eahon Technology

Eahon Technology (益泓科技)

Eahon Technology (Shanghai) Co. was founded on April 20, 2021, in Shanghai. Eahon Technology is a high-tech company that provides energy management and carbon asset management services and is committed to helping companies achieve net zero emissions. Eahon Technology can provide a carbon asset digital monitoring system and management platform, energy saving and emission reduction in the production process and daily operation, new energy infrastructure planning, integrated power management, and carbon asset management consulting services. Eahon Technology’s in-depth research in carbon asset management technology has made major progress in IoT sensors, Network Communications, Big Data and software development. Eahon Technology can provide services such as equipment operational status monitoring, environmental monitoring, asset integrity management consulting, integrated operation management platform development (including energy, asset, security, etc.), and digital and intelligent transformation.

New Energy Fuel Sector

Wuhan Troowin

Wuhan Troowin Power System Technology (众宇动力)

Established in 2011, Wuhan Troowin Power System Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Troowin) engages in the research and manufacturing of core parts, stacks and systems of fuel cells. As an expert in the fuel cell sector, Troowin has comprehensively mastered the core technologies of hydrogen fuel cells. The ability of design and development of fuel cell stacks allows Troowin to cooperate with manufacturers of end products according to the nature of applications in the market to sell and provide technical services for stacks and systems.

Since its establishment, Troowin has formed a R&D team of energy + gas + fuel cell led by experts under Hubei’s 100 Talent Plan, and has cooperated with scientific research institutions, universities, enterprises, etc. In addition, Troowin has been awarded such honorary titles as national high-tech enterprise,enterprise technology center and hydrogen energy talent training base of Hubei Province. Up to now, Troowin has applied for more than 200 patents and been granted over 100 patents (including 5 for invention in the USA, Japan and the EU), nearly 20 of which are internationally leading core technologies or proprietary technologies.

Troowin has developed three major products, namely fuel cell stacks and their core parts, fuel cell systems and fuel cell solutions, and can provide products and industrial solutions for automobiles, ships, distributed power generation and power supply. Troowin has established cooperation relationships with CMCC,SG,CGN,CSIC, DFM , Geely, Skywell, Hubei Wanshan and other companies to continuously promote the industrial and commercial operation of fuel cells.

Sinwt Science & Tech

Sinwt Science & Technology (三听科技)

Sinwt Science&Technology is committed to providing customers with products and solutions for intelligent recognition, location and tracking of sound events using acoustic emission sensor (AE Sensor) arrays + artificial intelligence technology. The major products are divided into two major categories: Ti-Ting series and Zhi-Yun-Ting series. The Ti-Ting series is mainly used in scenarios such as Power Bureau monitoring, sensitive area monitoring and “black flying” drone, while the SmartCloud series is a microphone array-based acoustic signal acquisition and processing system for multiple scenarios and types of applications.

Sinwt Science&Technology has been awarded as National High-tech Enterprise, Zhongguancun High-tech Enterprise, Ministry of Science and Technology Small and Medium-sized Enterprises and Beijing Economic‑Technological Development Area Rising Star Enterprise, and has been awarded as Beijing Golden Bridge Project A type support project and Beijing Excellent Young Engineer Innovation Studio A type support project, etc. Sinwt has always insisted on independent research and development and has dozens of invention patents, utility model patents and software copyright, and the technical innovation ability is steadily improving along with the R&D.

Innovation leads to development, and science and technology achieve dreams. Sinwt Science&Technology, the sound knows it all.