It’s called WISE (an acronym for World-Changing Innovations for Sustainable Energies), it’s organised by the NOVA Impact Office and GALP, in partnership with Nova SBE’s Innovation Ecosystem, and it has come to an end after 12 weeks of intense work by the participating teams. The program aims to find innovative solutions to transform the current energy landscape. Six teams competed with groundbreaking ideas, and the winning team has already been announced.
Announced this week, the top prize went to the project presented by the team of Akil Mambuque (NOVA SBE), Marta Simão (NOVA FCT), Martina Baviera (NOVA SBE), Rodrigo Borba (NOVA FCSH) and Teresa da Cruz (NOVA FCT), Mentored by Ana Sofia Esteves, they will receive all-expenses-paid tickets to the European Innovation Academy, the opportunity to shadow GALP and a Linkedin badge (NOVA certificate for Linkedin).
Their proposal is a Sunny Solar Bank, which introduces the innovative concept of an “energy bank”. This application allows users to deposit the extra energy they produce, using an algorithm that predicts the availability of energy and suggests the best times to sell it to the grid. Profits can be converted into discounts on energy bills or invested in renewable energy projects.
An honourable mention was also given to the team that presented the project NEWLY – Alternative Energy Storage Systems. This is a proposal that aims to revolutionise energy storage systems by developing a supercapacitor, a component capable of storing and delivering a high density of electrical energy in a short period, that uses paper electronics to increase the capacity of current storage systems. It was developed by students Beatriz Faria (NOVA FCT); Guilherme Caldeira (NOVA FCT), and Constança Vieira (NOVA FCSH), under the supervision of Professor António Câmara.
The jury was made up of Júlia Seixas, Pro-Rector for Sustainability at NOVA, João Ribeiro, Lead Open Innovation Manager, Mafalda Vasquez, Head of Attract, Select, Employee Experience and Belonging, and Pedro Ferreira, Commercial Innovation Unit Manager, all from Galp.
Launched in March, WISE is part of the protocol established between GALP and NOVA for the creation of NIRC (NOVA Interdisciplinary Research Community), which promotes collaboration within the NOVA community and innovation to address emerging challenges in sustainable energy systems.