By Anthony Cheng, NECEC Cleantech Navigate Intern

NECEC, as part of the lasting partnership with EDP (Energias de Portugal), is now sourcing energy startups and small- and medium-sized enterprises across North America for the 2021 edition of the Starter Business Acceleration program, the company’s global business accelerator.

Startups selected for the program will have the opportunity to develop pilot-projects and technology demonstrations with the world-renowned global utility. Startups based in North America have a unique opportunity to work with Houston-based EDP Renewables North America (EDPR NA), the fourth-largest wind developer in the United States. Startups can also explore expansion to any of the other 19 locations where the EDP Group operates around the world, including business units in Brazil, Portugal, Spain, and other international markets, which together serve more than 12 million customers.

The program will be held virtually in four phases: an application process, selection for an online pitch session, involvement in a global module, and the grand finale, where the winner will be announced and will receive a €50,000 award. EDP will select up to 30 startups to participate in the online pitch and choose 10 from that group to join the program, develop pilot-projects, and compete in the grand finale.

From the 2020 Starter Business Acceleration program cohort, EDP has already concluded five pilot-projects, and has 14 more projects ongoing and 17 under evaluation. EDP Ventures, the company's corporate venture capital arm, has already invested in two of these startups.

Applications are welcomed from startups across the globe and can be submitted until May 24 at: www.theenergystarter.com.

NECEC innovation program alumni such as Chargetrip, which participated in both NECEC’s Cleantech Open Northeast accelerator program and Cleantech Navigate programs, and Yotta Energy, a Cleantech Navigate alum, found significant success in the Starter Business Acceleration program last year and were among 45 startups selected to participate from a pool of more than 800 applicants from over 70 countries.

The Austin, Texas-based Yotta Energy, which developed a scalable and decentralized solar energy storage solution, was the winner of last year’s program and received a pilot and investment from EDP Ventures, the company’s corporate venture arm. Learn more about this partnership in this video.

EDP has also partnered with Chargetrip to pilot their routing technology that calculates the best route to a user’s destination with the optimal charging stations in between. Learn more about Chargetrip’s experience with the Starter Business Acceleration program here.

To learn more about EDP and its Starter Business Acceleration program, follow EDP on the company’s LinkedIn and Instagram or its innovation-focused LinkedIn and Twitter. For questions regarding this program through NECEC, please contact acheng@necec.org with the subject line “EDP Starter Opportunity 2021.”