Iberdrola España holds BAT Talk focused on innovation with start-ups

• During the event, which took place at the BAT B Accelerator Tower in Bilbao, the Basque company’s R&D strategies and innovation ecosystem were discussed.

• Iberdrola España has announced a new challenge focused on electricity grids aimed at start-ups under its PERSEO programme, which will open to the public next Wednesday, 5 June.

• In addition, three case studies of collaborative success with start-ups were presented.

Iberdrola España held a new edition of the BAT Talk today at the BAT B Accelerator Tower in Bilbao. During the event, attendees learned more about Iberdrola España's R&D strategy and innovation ecosystem, an ecosystem with numerous entities (technology centres, start-ups, etc.) that, working in co-creation, sharing spaces, projects and challenges, align efforts, interests and capabilities to identify new opportunities in the electricity industry.

Iberdrola España today is the world's leading wind power producer, Europe's leading electricity company in terms of market cap and one of the two largest in the world. The company is committed to the energy transition with a sustainable business model based on renewable energies, smart grids, large-scale energy storage and digital transformation to offer its customers the most advanced products and services.

Asís Canales, Iberdrola España's delegate in the Basque Country, stressed that ‘we promote collaboration with open innovation ecosystems through joint initiatives with universities, technology centres and entities such as the B Acceleration Tower (BAT), organising activities like today's talk’.

Today, it is the private energy company that invests the most in R&D&I in the world, with a clear commitment to innovation as a key strategic variable for the development and evolution of all its businesses and activities. This long-standing strategic vision has enabled the company to anticipate the current energy transition by 20 years to face the challenges of climate change and the need to offer a cleaner, more reliable and smarter business model.

During the conference, the new challenge focused on electricity grids and aimed at start-ups was announced. It is a challenge that will open to the public next Wednesday, 5 June, and is about how to make the most of the available grid capacity by leveraging on data. 

Asís Canales emphasised that Iberdrola España's PERSEO programme ‘with an investment of more than €175 million aims to facilitate the group's access to the technologies of the future while fostering the development of a global ecosystem of start-ups in the electricity industry with a focus on sustainability’ and added that ‘it is a tool created to introduce innovation in the company through different programmes and facilitate its potential application in tangible business cases that generate significant value for Iberdrola España and its stakeholders’.

According to Eriz Sainz Gurtubay, director of BAT B Accelerator Tower, ‘it’s an honour to be able to present an acceleration programme in collaboration with a leading global company like Iberdrola España. With this initiative, we not only highlight our commitment to this country, serving as an example for other companies in adopting open innovation strategies, but we also strengthen our international presence thanks to its global influence’.

The positioning and presence of the Basque company in BAT B Accelerator Tower was also announced, as well as the new acceleration programme that will be launched together.

Finally, three successful cases of collaboration with start-ups were presented including SMPnetworks, Woza Labs and Barbara loT.

The last part of the day was completed with a visit to the Global Smart Grids Innovation Hub – the innovation centre for electricity grids – that Iberdrola has at the José Ignacio Berroeta Corporate Centre in Bilbao in collaboration with the Regional Government of Biscay.

PERSEO Iberdrola Ventures, 15 years innovating with start-ups and industrial businesses

The Iberdrola Group, of which Iberdrola España forms part, is committed to a sustainable energy model within the framework of its PERSEO programme to promote the development of start-ups and innovative industrial companies working in new areas of electrification and in industries that are hard to decarbonise.

The PERSEO programme has €40 million through the Perseo Venture Builder specifically to launch industrial initiatives that can be developed in the field of energy transition.

Since its creation in 2008, PERSEO has invested €175 million in businesses that develop innovative technologies, focusing on those that improve the sustainability of the power industry through further electrification and decarbonisation of the economy.

Global Smart Grids Innovation Hub

Located in Bilbao, the Global Smart Grids Innovation Hub, promoted by Iberdrola España in collaboration with the Regional Government of Biscay, is consolidating its position as a world benchmark centre for innovation and knowledge in smart grids to respond to the challenges of the energy transition. It also acts as a driving force for innovation, combining the technological capacity of Iberdrola España with the more than 100 collaborating entities and companies integrated into the Hub. 

The initiative brings together the innovative potential of more than 200 professionals in the development of R&D&I projects related to the challenges of the electricity grids of the future: greater digitalisation, the processing of data generated by these infrastructures and their response, and electric mobility and self-consumption, among others.

About BAT B Accelerator Tower 

BAT B Accelerator Tower spearheads a national project that aims to put Biscay on the international map of entrepreneurship. The backing of major Basque institutions aims to make BAT B Accelerator Tower a unique centre in the world, capable of bringing together public tools at the service of entrepreneurship and innovation, together with the differential services and international network of PwC and collaborations with international partners such as Talent Garden and Impact Hub.

Aiming to be the most important innovation hub in Southern Europe and the best connected, B Accelerator Tower brings together and drives entrepreneurial talent and open innovation, where start-ups, corporates, investors and administration work together.

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