A comprehensive Innovation Due Diligence by RISE Chief Innovation Officer is one of the prizes in Winterwind Open Innovation Contest. You pitch your very own idea and will get instant feedback from the community as well as the possibility to network with the market players you need to get on board. Read about Winterwind’s arena for new ideas within research and product development – new interview with Tanja Tränkle, RISE here!
What should we expect of the Open Innovation Contest at Winterwind 2020?
It is pretty straight forward! A number of contestants are going to pitch their ideas or innovations, what they are up to in the next step and which partners they are seeking. After all, the conference wants to facilitate meeting the right people to advance your idea and business.
The audience as well as an expert jury are going to vote on the pitches and you can directly network with potential stakeholders.
Why compete?
The winning pitch will receive a tailored one-day innovation expert coaching by the chief innovation officer at RISE. Real value for your efforts, I would say. Other prizes are in the making. Take it also as a superb possibility to refine your pitch – unless you otherwise have everyday access to a 400 people international industry & research audience – this is always good practice!
What kind of innovations are needed when it comes to wind power in cold climate?
Every improvement that can reduce the cost of energy on overall terms is appreciated by the industry. The less maintenance and repair are needed, the better understood, planned and scheduled they can be, the better for the overall profitability – especially in harsh conditions of arctic or alpine climate.
That means, of course, also that any additional measures you take in order to handle e.g. icing, needs to be done as efficient as possible. You do not want to waste the energy you aimed to sell by heating your assets. On a more general level, there is still a lot to be done when it comes to understand and forecast the various kind of icing, how it will interact with your structure and how to optimally control your wind farm with respect to best profitability over lifetime. In the years to come, I guess we are going to see innovations on surface technology, moving towards high-performing surfaces that are less erosion-prone and at the same time ice-repellent surface structures. Deep learning will help the industry in creating better forecasts and optimize operational strategies with respect to icing – but certainly also with respect to a flexible and efficient power system built on renewables. As an input I suppose we will see more advanced measurements and modelling. Health, safety and environment will continue to either drive some of the development or the least benefit from the technological advancements.
I sincerely encourage everybody not to be too shy to participate: The most interesting ideas with disruptive potential are probably the ones that the community is not yet talking about! That’s the fun part of it!
