Free Electrons, the first global program connecting the most promising startups with giant companies in the energy sector, received a total of 857 startup applications from 86 countries for the 2020 edition, including 14 applications from Portugal. The largest number of applications came from the United States with 105 applications, followed by the United Kingdom (44), Germany (41), India (37), Australia (34) and Brazil (32).

Among the applications registered, 50% are related to energy management, 46% to clean energy, 41% to smart grids and 21% to customer solutions, among other categories.

Now that the application process is closed, the 36 startups will have the opportunity to present their project to 10 international utilities in a bootcamp to be held at the end of March, now in an online format due to the corona virus outbreak.

Among these startups is Tesselo which is based in Portugal. It was founded in 2017 and combines the use of satellite images and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to provide real-time information in fields such as agriculture, forestry, and infrastructure - thus solving environmental challenges. Startups from 17 other countries join Tesselo to look for a place in module 1, to be held in June, in Sydney, Australia.

As founder of the program, EDP has already developed 18 pilot projects and invested around 11 million euros in 6 startups during 3 years. "We have tried to combine EDP's strengths with the capabilities that startups have to develop tools and this combination is reflected in the investments we make," explains Carla Pimenta, Director of EDP Innovation.

She also emphasized that the expectations for this year's edition of Free Electrons are running high. "After receiving a record number of applications, we decided to increase the number of startups in the bootcamp, which means that we will have more energy projects presented to the utilities that are part of the program," she said.

Since 2017, Free Electrons has received more than 2300 applications and investments were made in more than 100 pilot programs while about 20 million euros were invested in startups. Together, the utility companies have about 80 million customers and are present in more than 40 countries.

List of 36 startups selected for the bootcamp

BluWave-ai | Canada

Hearth Labs | United States

Netobjex Inc | United States

Shifted Energy | United States

Enerbrain | Italy

Future-Grid | Australia

IND Technology | Australia

energyX Solutions Inc. | Canada

Ghost Robotics Corporation | United States

MEAZON SA | Greece

Chargetrip | Netherlands

fos4X GmbH | Germany

Gridio.io | Estonia

FlexiDAO | Spain

Green Eagle Solutions SL | Spain

NET2GRID BV | Netherlands

Tesselo | Portugal

Ripple Energy | United Kingdom

Sedicii | Ireland

Zaphiro Technologies SA | Switzerland

Skylab Analytics | Netherlands

Soraytec AS | Norway

TWAICE | Germany

Allume Energy | Australia

Disruptive Technologie | Norway

H2 Energy Now | Israel

RedGrid | Australia

TEGnology | Denmark

75F India | India

AMPLY Power, Inc. | United States

FLITE Material Sciences Corp | Canada

PDP-Technologies | Israel

UIB | Singapore

ShieldIOT | Israel

Vutiliti | United States

Vyntelligence | United Kindgom

Program structure
The 2020 edition of Free Electrons will be divided into three global modules: the first, in Sydney, Australia, in June; the second, in São Paulo, Brazil, in September; and the third and final module will take place in Singapore, in October, where the big winner will be known receiving a prize of 200 thousand dollars.

Companies participating in Free Electrons
The founding members of Free Electrons are Ausnet Services (Australia), DEWA (Dubai), EDP (Portugal), ESB (Ireland, Innogy (Germany), Origin Energy (Australia), SP Group (Singapore) and Tokyo Electric Power Company ( Japan).
In 2018, American Electric Power (USA) and CLP (Hong Kong) joined the program. Free Electrons is supported by the Portuguese Beta-i.

Check the Free Electrons website for more information.