By Elena Bou, Co-Founder and Innovation Director, InnoEnergy. This was first published as the Foreword in the InnoEnergy Impact Report 2024.
Political winds are shifting, and capital markets are passive. Yet, the need for clean tech innovations to power our global energy demand has never been bigger or more important. As global energy demand continues to rise, the challenge is not just to decarbonise but to do so while ensuring security of supply.
Clean tech innovations have boomed over the past decade and a half. Today, these technologies integrate with the existing energy industry, gradually transitioning it to become sustainable. No longer a niche play or a costly green premium, these innovations are now integral to the energy system, reshaping entire industries and emerging as the economically rational choice. From electrification in transport to green hydrogen in heavy industry, clean tech is not just an alternative; it is becoming the default. The question is no longer whether the transition will occur, but rather how quickly and which economies will lead it.
The success formula for growing clean tech innovations at scale is in the ecosystem. Transitioning to clean energy is not a siloed effort; it requires alignment on global policy, the startup community, global investors, academia, and the existing industrial base.
Public policy is a key driver of the energy transition. In the European Union, legally binding climate commitments and sectoral targets offer businesses and investors the regulatory certainty needed to drive the shift to net-zero. InnoEnergy supports the development of strong energy and industry policies that pave the way for new business models in clean energy, such as tidal or wave energy.
Building on this foundation, we prepare the current and future workforce, support clean tech companies, lead clean tech industrial value chains, and build the largest and most diverse clean tech ecosystem.
People
The clean energy transition centres around people. People bring new ideas, make decisions that impact our future, and turn visions into reality. Our priority is to provide opportunities for people to succeed in shifting our economy to net-zero. Whether that be educating the leaders of tomorrow, upskilling today’s talent for industry, or recruiting startup teams.
Clean tech companies
We have supported over 540 clean tech companies and continue to invest in new innovations. Four of these have grown into unicorns. These companies push boundaries and enable the alternatives that the energy transition needs to succeed. Our role is to identify the most relevant innovations, help them grow and find commercial traction, and set them up for a successful scale-up.
Clean tech industrial value chains
Our holistic focus on the energy transition includes shaping markets for clean tech industries to develop. We lead three strategic value chains in battery storage, green hydrogen, and solar photovoltaics and impact more sectors. We influence their strategic directions to accelerate the energy transition more effectively.
Ecosystem
We have developed the largest and most diverse clean innovation ecosystem. Today, more than 1,400 partners from industry, public and private investors, public policy, and academia with different expertise and experience work together to accelerate time-to-market, de-risk, and increase our portfolio companies’ impact.
Same mission. Higher ambitions.
Now, as the energy transition is underway, our ambitions continue to increase. Shifts in global geopolitical dynamics, a maturing clean tech industry, and a larger-than-ever clean energy demand set the stage for the next phase of work. With a proven track record and a strategic position at the heart of Europe’s clean tech ecosystem, we are ready to scale the transition globally. This report proves that we have generated an impact over the past 14 years.
Our work to keep increasing impact continues, and in the InnoEnergy Impact Report 2024, you can learn how we transition global energy and enable the transformation of every industry.
Read the full report here: InnoEnergy Impact Report 2024.