Quantom, tech tools to audit your solar power plant, optimize its performance and control it intelligently; Ssinergy, digital solutions for improving the performance of buildings while helping to make them carbon-free; Blue Carbon, an initiative that uses drones to map mangrove planting areas* in Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates), as well as plant them and monitor their growth. Quantom, Ssinergy and Blue Carbon are just three of the 16 startups being presented over four days at VivaTech 2021 (see insert). ENGIE supports each of them via incubation or integration into its Business Units.
"The fact that these innovations are shared among all these players is a source of inspiration and new forms of cooperation that help us to imagine, today, the low-carbon energy system of the future."
Csilla Kohalmi-Monfils, Director of Innovation Ecosystems at ENGIE
At VivaTech, our power of innovation associated with digital technology
For ENGIE, VivaTech represents an opportunity to showcase its power of innovation via the young startups presented, but also that which permeates the entire Group, driven by our number one objective to become "Net Zero Carbon" on all our scopes by 2045**. On 18 March, we announced our strategic objectives, including a commitment to long-term growth and acceleration in renewable energies. In order to achieve this, we need to activate the industrial levers to ramp up the use of these mature energies (wind, solar) or those in the making (biogas, hydrogen, etc.). But we also need to support innovation and digital technology, which can play a key role in achieving our "Net Zero Carbon" ambition. So why VivaTech? Because the fair attracts investors, tech experts, experts from ENGIE, partners, customers, journalists, the general public... This convergence of tech players is a tremendous booster for the startups we incubate - economically in terms of financing and potential partnerships, reputation, etc. - and it allows us to continue fostering innovation within the Group, and in the energy value chain.
Innovation at ENGIE: quite a programme!In conjunction with VivaTech, our Innovation Festival returns this year in digital format. Live sessions, masterclasses, conferences... The event brings together ENGIE communities involved in the research and development of innovative solutions, fostering co-creation between our employees worldwide. The highpoint of the event is on Tuesday 15 June with the presentation of the 2021 Innovation Trophies, which have been rewarding our employees' innovative ideas and projects for 36 years! Go to innovation.engie.com to find out more. |
Innovation is part of ENGIE's DNA
Every year, we invest 190 million euros in Group-wide research. 900 researchers make up our workforce, and we have 23 theme-oriented research laboratories and eight R&D centres around the world. ENGIE also detects nearly 500 startups every year in the context of its Innovation Festival (see insert). In 2019 alone, we invested 500 million euros in startups, and our innovation community includes more than 26,000 employees. We also have a venture capital fund of 180 million euros.
This shows that the Group is giving itself the wherewithal to innovate, both at the level of the BUs and of Research & Development across the Group, with the ENGIE Lab Crigen in Stains. Our transversal innovation themes include green energy supply, energy management systems, energy efficiency and renewable gases. Discover our strategy and our innovation projects in our Feature!
Our 16 international startups present at VivaTech
Industry and supply chain: Vyntelligence; MIRORS
For the #Energy & GreenTech environment: GEOSOPHY; QUANTOM; H2 SITE; ENERGY ACCESS
Smart city, mobility & energy: SIRADEL; VERTUOZ; URBIK; ZES
Tech for society: Connected energy; Blue Carbon; Batteries for People; Spoors; Energy Square; Lancey.
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* Tropical coastal forest formation made up of trees known as mangroves, which colonizes the muddy deposits of estuaries or lagoons.
** Emissions of Scopes 1, 2 and 3: Scope 1/ direct greenhouse gas emissions from fixed or mobile installations located within the organisational scope, i.e. from sources owned or controlled by the organisation (combustion of fixed and mobile sources, industrial processes excluding combustion, etc.); Scope 2/ indirect emissions linked to the production of electricity, heat or steam acquired for the activities of the organisation; Scope 3/ other emissions indirectly produced by the activities of the organisation not accounted for in Scope 2 but linked to the entire value chain (purchase of raw materials, services or other products, employee travel, upstream and downstream transport of goods, etc.)