Meet The 15 Cleantech Startups That Won Social Alpha Energy Challenge 2.0

With rising awareness about issues concerning pollution, global warming, climate change among others, there has been an increased need to turn towards technology for finding solutions for them. In one such bid, Social Alpha and Tata Trusts, on Monday (December 9), announced the winners of the second edition of Social Alpha Energy Challenge 2.0 (SAEC 2.0).

Under this challenge, a total of fifteen startups has been selected as winners from over 150 applicants across the country. The selected startups were screened for their unique technology and business model, strong focus on affordability and accessibility and social, economic and environmental impact. Notably, the Social Alpha Energy Challenge 2.0 was launched in April 2019.

The winning solutions leverage technologies for enabling energy-efficient heating and cooling systems, innovative electric vehicle (EV) solutions, clean cooking devices, innovative battery technologies, energy monitoring systems, and hydro turbine technologies, among others.

Further, the selection of these startups was made under two categories — ‘pre-pilot’ and ‘post-pilot’. The pre-pilot category winners will be supported in their very early stage through handholding and mentorship for product development, including support in physical prototype development and testing.

Moreover, the post-pilot category startups, which have crossed the proof of concept (POC) stage and have demonstrated a working prototype, will be supported in the go-to-market execution.

The selected startups will be incubated by the Clean Energy International Incubation Centre (CEIIC). Notably, CEIIC is the joint initiative of the government of India and Tata Trusts, which is supported by the department of biotechnology, BIRAC, among others. Additionally, CEIIC will support entrepreneurs by providing industry and field to connect critical for product development.

Here are the 15 winners of SAEC 2.0:

1. Elicius Energy:

Elicius Energy is a cleantech startup that provides resources to companies using or considering energy storage technologies such as hydrogen fuel cells or batteries.

2. Grassroots Energy:

Bangalore-based cleantech startup Grassroots generates renewable natural gas (Bio-CNG) at distributed scale to give small-scale farmers and operators the opportunity to turn their agricultural waste into energy.

3. Temperate Technologies:

Hyderabad-based Temperate Technologies has developed a proprietary energy-efficient air conditioning and cold storage technology, leading reduction in the overall energy consumption.

4. Offgrid Energy Labs:

Kanpur-based cleantech startup Offgrid Energy Labs has developed a ZincGel® battery that has the potential to outperform current lead-acid batteries in terms of power density, battery-life and cost thereby significantly reducing the number of batteries

5. Gtarang Energy Solutions:

Mumbai-based cleathech startup Gtarang Energy Solutions has developed an efficient biomass-based furnace solution that can fuel for small sector enterprise clusters such as jaggery making, rice mills, dairy, etc.

6. Stallion Vortex:

Delhi-based cleathech startup Stallion Vortex provides a small scale hydropower solution, which is a run-of-the-river type hydropower plant.

7. Feynman Innovations:

Founded by Nihal Revankar, Feynman Innovations provides a light-weight and energy-efficient robotic cleaning solution that can clean solar panels with zero water usage.

8. Himalayan Rocket Stove:

Himalayan Rocket Stove provides energy-efficient, affordable and clean heating and cooking system suited to Himalayan conditions.

9. Krishna Arya Tech Corp:

Krishna Arya Tech Corp has developed ‘Annapoorna cookstove’, a zero-emission, low-cost, and energy-efficient cooking solution.

10. Tan90:

Founded by IIT Madras students, Tan90 provides a portable, solar-powered cold storage system which is powered by a thermal battery that can reduce wastage of farm produce and increase farmer incomes.

11. Maclec:

This cleantech startup has developed a hydro-kinetic turbine technology that enables to harness hydropower from water streams like rivers, hilly streams, even running urban wastewater from canals and sewages without the need to create bigger civil structures.

12. Doorastha Analytics:

Delhi-based cleantech startup Doorastha Analytics has developed a solar-power 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.

13. Meladath Auto:

Bengaluru-based Meladath auto has built 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.

14. NRG Village:

IoT-based startup NRG Village has built a 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.

15. SwitchDin:

Australia-based cleantech startup SwitchDin gives energy companies — network operators, electricity retailers and integrated utilities — tools for securely integrating and managing diverse mixes of small-scale distributed energy resources (DERs) to optimise system-wide outcomes.