De jury announced Elestor as the winner of the Offshore Wind Innovators Jury Award 2022. The public also chose Elestor for the Audience Award 2022. The Offshore Wind Innovators Awards are prizes organised by TKI Offshore Energy to reward innovative contributions to the offshore energy transition. The judges were unanimous in their top three with Elestor, FLASC and TechBinder. The winners show that the offshore energy sector is working hard on solutions to make the scale leap to 21 Gigawatts of clean energy from the North Sea by 2030 a reality and provide our country with a steady stream of clean energy.
A jury of renowned professionals judges the entries each year. This year, the jury consisted of Suzanne van de Beek of energy company Vattenfall, Jakob Bergvelt of financial consultants Green Giraffe, and was led by Simon Watson, professor of Wind Energy Systems at TU Delft and director of DUWIND. The jury judged the entries on their contribution to the offshore energy transition. For example, does an innovation help address the pressing labour shortage or does the idea contribute to a stable energy supply?
Elestor unanimous winner for the jury
"Elestor convinces with feasibility and entrepreneurship. The organisation is already robust. Elestor is far along in the development of the flow battery with bromine and hydrogen and the practical applicability is proven," the jury said of Elestor.
Elestor's idea is a power battery containing hydrogen bromide. Using electricity, hydrogen bromide splits into hydrogen and bromine. The battery then recharges and supplies power when hydrogen and bromine come back together. These raw materials are widely available worldwide - they can be extracted from seawater - and the concept is easy to scale up to large storage parks. This makes it a robust and low-cost way to realise energy storage.
"This makes Elestor the most credible submission when it comes to scaling up the idea to industrial application at the offshore level, that scalability is a big plus. This is an innovative application of the flow battery, which can help accelerate offshore wind generation."
In the audience award, the choice was also convincing. About half of the votes went to Elestor.
FLASC also offers energy storage sollutions
According to the jury, the Maltese-Dutch FLASC scores highly in solving one of the biggest challenges for wind energy: large-scale and economic storage. "The system seems well suited to solve short-term energy supply imbalances. If it can be scaled up, the economic impact could be huge. Moreover, the solution is environmentally friendly, using only pressurised seawater, with no chemical components."
Since FLASC tested a prototype in Malta, many offshore wind parties have already knocked on their doors.
TechBinder helps solve personnel shortages and fleet management
The augmented reality-systeem van TechBinder improves the relationship between human and machine. Technicians transfer their knowledge not to one successor, but to a data system that multiple colleagues can access. This way, technical knowledge is not lost when people leave. The jury was enthusiastic: "We are surprised that a system like TechBinder's Smart Field Support is not yet picked up more by the market. It seems so practical. Such a concrete solution to a big problem: the shortage of human capital. The economic and social impact is great: such a system can ensure that offshore wind energy can be applied on a larger scale."
Read the full jury report here.
All pictures, except for the jury report, were all taken by Nicoline Rodenburg, commissioned by TKI Offshore Energy. Pictures can only be used with reference to the Nicoline Roderburg and TKI Offshore Energy.