Energy Efficiency and Uses

The Energy Efficiency category includes technologies that enable to save energy in industrial processes as well as at home. Saving energy reduces greenhouse gas emissions and has also a positive impact on expenditures on energy. Examples include advanced light sources and controls, smart / user-friendly energy management systems, energy-efficient water heaters and other appliances, high-efficiency industrial process systems, energy efficient technologies for construction, motors, pumps, and advanced space heating and cooling systems.

Example technologies include:

• Energy analytics
• Home automation and energy management systems
• Enterprise energy management
• Efficient devices
• Smart plugs
• Lighting (LED lighting)
• Efficient heating and cooling
• Efficient heat transfer
• Waste heat recovery
• Alternatives to heat intensive processes
• Efficient pumping solutions
• Power management
• Industrial process improvements
• Energy efficient technologies for producing construction materials
• Pure manufacture techniques
• Material efficient solutions

Energy Efficiency vs Energy Generation
If a company uses waste to create energy, like biogas from landfills, then it is Energy Generation category. If a company uses integrated systems for waste heat recovery, then it is Energy Efficiency category.

Energy Efficiency vs Information & Communications Technologies (ICT)
If a company develops a software for integrated energy or resource planning to reduce the usage of energy and greenhouse gas emissions, then it belongs to the Information & Communications Technologies category. If a company develops a technology, which requires less energy per product than other similar technologies then it should define itself as Energy Efficiency category company.

Example alumni companies
a) Indow Windows – winner of Energy Efficiency category in 2011. Indow Windows are thermal window inserts that press into place on the inside of a window frame with no nails, screws, or adhesives to give you double pane window performance at a fraction of the cost.

b) Abeo A/S – winner of the Global Ideas Competition in 2010. The company created a new method of constructing concrete buildings which can reduce cost and CO2 emissions by up to 50 percent. The company calls such buildings super-light structures. Video of the company can be seen here.

c) Alphabet Energy – a runner up for the National Grand Prize in 2009 and an Energy Efficiency category winner. Alphabet Energy captures wasted energy and converts it to something useful and 100% clean electricity using thermoelectric technology. Producers of waste heat can use this electricity to power their facilities, or sell it back to the grid. Video of the company can be seen here.

d) NiLa Inc. – winner of the Energy Efficiency category in 2007. Nila, Inc. develops and sells innovative and environmentally sustainable high-output solid-state lighting systems. Nila’s first market is the motion picture and television industry.

e) Adura Technologies – Winner of 2006 Energy Efficiency category and 2009 Alumni award. Adura Technologies is the leading provider of wireless lighting controls and energy management systems. Their mission is to provide cost-effective lighting control solutions for new and retrofitted commercial buildings. They help building owners, tenants and facility managers increase energy efficiency and enable granular control over a building’s lighting