Global energy demand is estimated to grow by 40 percent by 2035. While traditional energy will continue to be a significant part of the energy mix, the world will need additional sources of energy, and use it more efficiently, to meet the demand.
Some of the most promising energy innovations were recently on display in San Jose at the annual Global Forum of the Cleantech Open, a California-based nonprofit with a mission to find, fund and foster entrepreneurs addressing today's big energy, environmental and economic challenges.
HEVT, whose game-changing motor technologies feature smart software and hardware to empower the next generation of electric motors, claimed the $250,000 prize for the National Accelerator competition and the title of 2012 Cleantech Open National Grand Prize Winner. Four other finalist teams were honored in the categories of air-water-waste, energy efficiency, green building and renewable energy. The two-day forum, held at the Hayes Mansion, featured five-minute pitches from each company in front of a crowd of 1,000 investors, entrepreneurs, sponsoring companies, corporations and members of academia.
Cleantech innovations from around the world were also featured as part of the Global Ideas Competition. Receiving a prize worth $100,000 in startup services, Biosyntia of Denmark was judged winner of the 2012 Global Ideas competition. Biosyntia offers high-performance cell factories for fermentation of fine chemicals for manufacturing companies, enabling production costs to be cut by up to 80 percent, while gaining a greener profile.
Chevron is a strategic partner with the Cleantech Open as part of its business strategy to invest in promising new cleantech and energy efficiency technologies.
"Our partnership with the Cleantech Open leverages complementary assets, accelerating the commercialization of advanced technologies that will benefit our economy, and potentially, our base business," said David Stone, senior vice president at Chevron Energy Solutions. "We are all going to have to work together and think creatively about energy, in order to meet the dramatically increasing energy expectations of the future."