Start-ups, industry and capital to boost energy innovation

The energy transition depends not only on the development of new technologies, but also on the ability to transform that innovation into viable business projects and scalable industrial solutions. This was one of the main themes of discussion at Energía Connecta, a meeting held yesterday at the BStartup Barcelona Hub, which brought together start-upsInitiatives to boost innovation, capital, and companies in the energy sector were brought together to analyze how innovation processes can be accelerated in a sector that is particularly complex from a technological and regulatory perspective. The event, promoted by the Energy Efficiency Cluster of Catalonia, with the collaboration of BStartup by Banc Sabadell and the support of ACCIÓ, focused on the mechanisms that connect technological talent, capital, and industry to facilitate the scaling of new energy solutions.

The session, introduced by Júlia Devin, Growth & Partnerships Manager at the Norrsken Foundation, featured Oriol Pascual, founder and director of S2 Xpeed; Josep Solé, executive director of ERIA Estabanell Innovation Hub; and Roger Blanch, Investment Manager of BStartup10 at Banco Sabadell. The discussion highlighted that energy innovation requires not only technological development, but also business support infrastructure, access to capital, and collaboration with industrial players capable of integrating these solutions into the market. Start-ups and technology transfer in the energy sector

The event also highlighted the growing role of startups in transforming the energy sector, with solutions that are already beginning to move beyond the experimental phase. In a context where the challenge is not only to innovate but also to bring these technologies to market, these initiatives point to how to begin resolving some of the system's main bottlenecks.

Within this framework, several start-ups They presented their solutions in a dedicated session of the day. Among the participating initiatives were Watt&Link, a platform that integrates data and operations to improve the management of photovoltaic plants; AEInnova, focused on digitalization and energy efficiency in energy-intensive industries; and Tetrax AI, which applies artificial intelligence to analyze risk and automate processes in energy assets. Other startups also participated, such as BeChained, which uses artificial intelligence to optimize energy consumption in industrial processes; Cooling Photonics, which develops materials capable of cooling surfaces through light without energy consumption; and eRoots Analytics, focused on software and engineering to optimize the capacity of the electrical grid. At a time when the energy sector is facing a profound transformation, initiatives like this reflect the importance of connecting the different actors in the ecosystem—startups, research centers, investors, and industry—to accelerate the arrival of new technologies to the market and strengthen the sector's competitiveness.