Successful participation at the Space4Energy-Hackathon

EnergyFamily wins two awards at the start-up competition in Graz.

Satellite data for a green future - this is the goal of the Space4Energy Hackathon. The competition for start-ups and students was organized by the Federal Ministry for Climate Protection together with the ESA BIC Space Solutions Austria and the Green Energy Lab and came to a festive conclusion on November 4 with the award ceremony in Graz.

EnergyFamily was represented and successful in two of the four categories:

• 1st place in the category Space4Wind

• 2nd place in the category Space4Thermal

Winning teams and organisational team, from left to right: Karlheinz Gutjahr, Jannik Deutscher, Lukas Prenner, Dijana Janevska, Christian Fuchs, Andreas Salentinig, Sebastian Vogler, Alexander Graf, Sophie Hoffmann (© FotoCRafie)

EnergyFamily founder Lukas Prenner teamed up with Sahir Khan and Dr Karlheinz Gutjahr from Joanneum Research Forschungsgesellschaft for the hackathon.

Together they worked on concrete solutions to pre-defined challenges from key industry players from Austria. A total of 50 participants in 17 teams took part in the hackathon.

In the Space4Wind category, the project partners Energie Steiermark and Rheologic focused on developing more precise simulations of historical and future wind conditions in wind farms. As a solution, the project team presented an interface that categorizes surfaces according to "zonal roughness" and makes this data openly accessible. This approach convinced the project partners.

"The results are an important step into the future. Satellite data from the European earth observation program Copernicus are a valuable data basis for planning the expansion of wind power and for achieving the energy transition."

Andreas Horvath of Rheologic

The winning teams and their innovative approaches were also honored by Climate Minister Leonore Gewessler:

"Space technologies and satellite data help us to better understand climate change and, derived from this, to make prudent, future-oriented decisions."

Award ceremony, from left to right: Christian Orthofer (Energie Steiermark), Karlheinz Gutjahr (Joanneum Research), Lukas Prenner (Energie.Family), Dijana Janevska, Science Park Graz / ESA Space Solutions Austria (© FotoCRafie)

EnergyFamily is pleased to receive the award and looks forward to continuing to work with the project team, project partners, and ESA to realize and implement the idea as part of the ESA Green Transition Information Factory (GTIF) initiative.

For more information on the Space4Energy Hackaton and all award winners, click here.