The third edition of Free Electrons has just opened its inscriptions. It is the first global program to bring together the most promising startups from the energy sector. The inscription deadline is February 22 and is open to enterprises all over the world. The final of this competition will take place in September, in Lisbon.

Free Electrons is a global program, focused on the possibilities of developing projects and businesses among startups and companies of the sector, and aims to find innovative solutions in mobility, green energies, smart networks and digitalization.

The first two editions of the program show Free Electrons’ potential to favor the development of starting enterprises. In the second edition, 2018, 24 Spanish firms applied.

Once the inscription’s period comes to an end, the organization will choose the startups that will finally participate in the program. The organization will announce it on March 13.

This year’s edition is divided in three modules: the first will be in May in Columbus (Ohio); the second, in June, will take place in Hong Kong (China); and the third will be in September in Lisbon, where the winner startup will be announced, and will receive a 200 000-dollar prize.

In 2018, EDP developed various pilot projects and invested in 4 startups that took part in Free Electrons and that will shake up the market. One of them was SOLshare, the winner of the competition in 2018, whose project is going to have a great impact in the energy market in Bangladesh, where more than 50 million people still have no access to electric grids. The company created a solution with solar panels in households, that enable the electric energy supply in several homes.

Results

In just two editions, this global competition has achieved:

More than 1 000 inscriptions from all over the world

Applications from more than 70 countries

Development and execution of various projects, generating businesses among companies and startups

More than 7 million euros in contracts among 27 startups and 10 utilities

Free Electrons offers a unique opportunity to the most promising startups of the energy sectors, getting them in touch with leader companies in the world, that can help them to develop businesses in new markets. The 10 utilities of the sector that take part in the program add up 80 million customers and are present in more than 40 countries.

Companies participating in Free Electrons

Apart from EDP, the founders of the program are Ausnet Services (Australia), DEWA (Dubai), ESB (Irland), Innogy (Germany), Origin Energy (Australia), SP Group (Singapur) and Tokyo Electric Power Company (Japan).

In 2018 American Electric Power (United States) and CLP (Hong Kong) joined.

The company Beta-I also supports the Free Electrons program.