Fifteen Cleantech Startups Awarded for Unique Technology, Biz Model

In a bid to encourage startup companies in the cleantech space, fifteen companies addressing climate change and energy access were awarded by the Government of India, BIRAC, Tata Trusts, Tata Power and Social Alpha.

These companies were working on technologies for energy storage, smart metering, clean cooking, innovative electric vehicle (EV) solutions, battery technologies, energy monitoring systems and hydro turbine technologies.

The awards were provided at a felicitation ceremony and innovation showcase of the Social Alpha Energy Challenge 2.0 (SAEC 2.0).

Further, these winners were selected from more than 150 applicants across the country which were screened for their unique technology and business model, strong focus on affordability and accessibility and social, economic and environmental impact.

The selection for the winners of ‘Social Alpha Energy Challenge 2.0’ was made for two categories respectively – ‘pre-pilot’ and ‘post-pilot’, to address the needs of technologies and start-ups in different stages of product development.

Moreover, these winners will be incubated by the Clean Energy International Incubation Centre (CEIIC). CEIIC, Social Alpha’s deep-tech Energy Innovation Lab, which is the joint initiative of the Government of India and Tata Trusts, supported by Department of Biotechnology, BIRAC, Tata Power and Tata Power-DDL. CEIIC will support entrepreneurs by providing industry and field connect critical for product development.

Dr. Renu Swarup, Secretary Department of Biotechnology & Chairperson BIRAC, said “The incubation support at CEIIC would play a catalytic role for lab-to-market facilitation to the winners of the Energy Challenge 2.0. Under Mission Innovation, CEIIC is a first of its kind International Incubation Centre jointly established by DBT/BIRAC, Tata Trusts & Tata Power reflecting strong PPP commitment for promoting new affordable solutions for clean energy.”

“Technological innovation in the cleanenergy space is not a choice anymore, but a necessity. This is the only way to deliver sustainable and affordable energy for all. We have joined hands with Social Alpha for the Clean Energy International Incubation Centre that will help us achieve this goal. Tata Power is extending support to the start-ups in terms of technical mentorship and commercial opportunities, wherever possible,” said Praveer Sinha, CEO and Managing Director, TATA Power.

Manoj Kumar, Founder and CEO, Social Alpha and Head of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Tata Trusts, commented “we already have 8 cleantech companies in our portfolio that have demonstrated the potential to collectively reduce more than 90 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions every year by 2030. We are really looking forward to this year’s winning innovations and believe that they will further strengthen India’s leadership in global shift towards clean and sustainable energy.”

The winners will receive customised lab-to-market incubation support at CEIIC, which includes access to world-class lab infrastructure and test beds, technical advisory, R&D support, piloting opportunities with industry leaders, access to grant funding, hands-on operational support, business planning, go-to-market strategic advisory, international exposure and collaboration opportunities, opportunity to access seed support from Social Alpha, and a connect with a larger investor and donor network, access to shared office space with amenities and shared support services.

Here’re the top fifteen startup winners under pre-pilot and post-pilot categories:

• Tan90: Portable, solar-powered cold storage system powered by thermal battery that can reduce wastage of farm produce and increase farmer incomes.
• SwitchDin: A virtual power plant and micro-grid platform which integrates with most solar and battery systems in the market to enable site energy management as well as coordination across micro-grids or virtual power plants.
• Feyman Innovations: A light-weight and energy efficient robotic cleaning solution that can clean solar panels with zero water usage and negligible/minimal stress on the panels.
• Elicius Energy: A fuel cell energy storage technology that not only offers clean power but also provides an increase in power density as compared to the current market standard and lower initial purchase costs.
• Doorastha Analytics: Developed solar powered grid monitoring system that can do a full performance monitoring of the power network within the micro-grid and generate live data that can help improve its performance.
• Offgrid Energy Labs: Developed a ZincGel® battery that can outperform current lead acid batteries in terms of power density, battery-life and cost thereby significantly reducing the number of batteries.
• Meladath Auto: An innovative retrofit table conversion kit that can replace the front wheel of the scooter and can be converted into an electric scooter without any modifications.
• NRG Village: An IoT-based grid-connected microgrid operating platform, which allows consumers to control their energy use, thereby enabling incentivising of consumers, utilities, prosumers, and finance companies of decentralised renewable solutions.
• Temperate Technologies: Developed a new proprietary energy-efficient air conditioning and cold storage technology which leads to up to 50 percent reduction in the overall energy consumption.
• Gtarang Energy Solutions: Developed efficient biomass based furnace solutions that can save huge amounts of fuel for small sector enterprise clusters such as jaggery making, rice mills, dairy, etc.
• Stallion Vortex: is a small scale hydropower solution, which is a run-of-the-river type hydro power plant, which requires low head and very less civil structure, reducing the installation and operation cost by a great extent.
• Grassroots Energy: Developed a low-cost energy efficient technology that can purify and compress biogas in a cost effective manner. This will address diverse market segments currently using fossil fuels to switch to low-cost bio-CNG without any lowering of performance.
• Maclec: Developed best of its kind hydro-kinetic turbine technology that enables to harness hydro power from water streams like rivers, hilly streams, even running urban waste water from canals and sewages without the need to create bigger civil structures.
• Himalayan Rocket Stove: Highly energy efficient, affordable and clean heating and cooking system suited to Himalayan conditions that can reduce emissions/air pollution by a massive 90 percent or more caused from firewood thereby positively impacting health and environmental outcomes of the region.
• Krishna Arya Tech Corp: Developed ‘Annapoorna cookstove’, a zero-emission, low-cost, and energy efficient cooking solution that can reduce the emissions cause due to biomass based cooking.