InnoEnergy has built an ecosystem to industrialise clean-tech innovation in Europe. One which connects capital, customers, skills and policy so that ideas can scale.
Elena Bou (Co-Founder & Innovation Director, InnoEnergy), Patrik Möller (Co-Founder & CEO, CorPower Ocean) and Piotr Grudzień (Head of Innovation, Cellect; InnoEnergy Masters+ graduate) convened to share their perspectives on how this ecosystem is driving industrial transformation across Europe.
From insight to industrial scale-up
CorPower is a tangible example of the InnoEnergy ecosystem in action. Patrik recalls how InnoEnergy paired him “as an entrepreneur together with Stig, a very bright inventor.” Stig Lundbäck’s inspiration came from the human heart: just as it pumps blood through rhythmic contractions, wave energy devices harness the ocean’s steady pulse. This biomimicry turned into CorPower’s wave energy converter.
Patrik explains how the company worked with InnoEnergy to go from insight to industrial scale-up: “We set out on a five-stage product development and verification process aimed at proving the first principles, starting small-scale and then going ahead to show the evidence that you could increase the key metrics such as structural efficiency, reliability, and survivability.”
CorPower now employs three full-time team members and numerous interns from InnoEnergy’s graduate programme. “It’s a great way to start interacting with people in the last years of their studies,” says Patrik.
Today, the company operates at commercial scale, with a device powering the grid in Portugal. “We’ve seen eighteen and a half meter waves. The biggest ever recorded by the Hydrographic Institute, and it’s survived every one. So today the technology is proven,” said Patrik.
“Leveraging the ecosystem became the most important quality…”
With wave power proving that 24/7 clean power is within reach, the task is now to industrialise this technology from the inside out, and that involves investing in the right people to scale it.
But this challenge extends far beyond wave power. As Elena highlights, industrial transformation across sectors will only succeed if talent and technology advance together. Supporting this, InnoEnergy already has over 2,000 graduates working in cleantech, with 10% employed in shareholder companies.
Piotr, now leading innovation at Cellect, reflected on his Masters+ experience: “I have been exposed to industrial challenges at every step of the programme.” And just as important, with 84% of alumni staying in Europe after graduation, turning their skills into opportunities and securing employment proved relatively straightforward. Employers, he noted, were particularly drawn to the programme’s double degree: “We studied in very good quality universities with a great brand, InnoEnergy, standing behind us.” Additionally, “the skill of connecting the dots to leverage the ecosystem” became the most essential quality that his employers appreciated.
“Our graduates are our secret weapon- transforming every industry from the inside.”
To keep Europe’s clean-energy transition on track, and to ensure that we meet our net-zero targets, we need dependable, round-the-clock clean power and a talent pipeline to industrialise it. Against that backdrop, Elena revealed that InnoEnergy’s graduates are “our secret weapon”.
“At the end, we are here to do this transition in global energy, but at the same time, we are transforming every industry, which means transforming from the inside,” she said.
Piotr echoes this sentiment, explaining how InnoEnergy graduates learn to make an impact by creating valuable connections, not only by focusing on the energy industry, but also by seeing and solving challenges across the whole system.
This ethos is backed by the ecosystem InnoEnergy has built to industrialise clean-tech innovation in Europe. One which connects capital, customers, skills and policy so that ideas can scale.
To learn more, watch the engaging conversation in the video recording below.
