Some of the many highlights included Dr. Steven Chu’s keynote address. As the 12^th United States Secretary of Energy and Nobel Prize winner he had great insight to share about the impact of humans on our planet and how we affect climate change. During the Energy Futures roundtable session he said: “The biggest challenge in climate change is the spread of correct information”.

We were also really inspired by Former President of Ireland and UN Special Envoy on Climate Change and also a keynote speaker during the event: Mary Robinson, who shared that “The future of our children is in danger because of climate change! The world badly needs problem solvers and solution finders like you.”

We also enjoyed hearing from Schneider Electric France CEO, Christel Heydemann, CEO and President of EDF, Jean-Bernard Lévy, and General Director for Energy and Climate at the Ministry for the Ecological and Inclusive Transition Laurent Michel. In addition, we were lucky to have numerous other really interesting individuals speak during the parallel sessions and reverse pitches, see all of them here.

During the event we showcased our own thought leadership by launching a new study that analysed 800 sustainable energy entrepreneurs and identified five key common competencies among them. The report was launched at a press conference on day 1 of the event and was well attended by many of the top media representatives who attended the event. See the report here.

As we do every year, many of the 160 start-ups that came to the event presented their companies and products during four-minute pitching sessions. Through public voting, five finalists were chosen to pitch to an expert jury, who selected the top three pitches to receive cash prizes that will help the companies push their innovations even further forward. This year we’re proud to announce that Skeleton Technologies was awarded with a cheque for 10,000 euro for winning first prize, instagrid won second prize receiving 3,000 euros and Energy Square won third prize also receiving a reward of 3,000 euros. Congratulations all!

We would like to thank all TBB.2019 partners, especially our Diamond partners PwC, Engie and Capgeminiinvent as well as our Sapphire partner D.TEK. Thank you all for helping us host the most successful TBB yet and push forward the sustainable energy transition together.

We look forward to another exciting TBB next year that will take place in Berlin! Until then, let’s keep adopting sustainable energy innovations.

Click here to see photos and check out some of our favourite quotes from the event:

“…we have a generation coming up that expects companies to show sustainable action and in the digital age it’s hard to cover the truth when they don’t do it” Dr. Cyrus Wadia, Former Vice President- Sustainable Business & Innovation, NIKE, Inc.

“The path to the future is collaboration between utilities and energy communities” Mislav Javor, CEO of AMPnet.

“By large, the industry knows that it has to change” David Branson, Senior Executive Advisor, Strategy, PwC

“We are people like you, we are part of the solution. We cannot solve this challenge on our own. We have to work with everyone. A few years ago, we didn’t know what start-ups could bring us and we had to learn how to work with them”  Jaime Martin Juez, Executive Director Technology and Corporate Venturing, Repsol