Imperial Students Find Success at Mayor’s Low Carbon Entrepreneur 2014 Competition

On Wednesday, Imperial students James Winfield and Dominic Jacobson won the Mayor of London’s Low Carbon Entrepreneur 2014 award. Sharing the prize money with SolarBox (created by two students from LSE), Winfield and Jacobson’s idea, called Crowd Power Plant impressed the judges enough to win £15,000 in prize money. The team was one of four Imperial teams (Blocks, Light-Fi, the Energy Defenders and Crowd Power Plant) to make the shortlist, along with five other teams that were also selected from hundreds of carbon-cutting entries.

The award, presented at the ceremony by Mayor of London Boris Johnson, was hosted Siemens at the Siemens Crystal at the Royal Victoria Docks. During the ceremony the CEO of Siemens (the award sponsors) Roland Aurich, said, “We are proud to be associated with the Low Carbon prize for the second year in a row… that really ties the bands together with the city and Siemens on what we are doing here in London. It is a good showcase for the rest of the globe.”

The students had to submit a business plan and successfully pitch to a panel of 8 expert judges (including Deborah Meaden (Dragons Den), Richard Reed (Innocent Smoothies) and Zach Goldsmith (Environmental journalist, MP)) in order to reach the shortlist, and are also eligible for 6 Siemens internships at “the Crystal”.

Mayor of London Boris Johnson said, “The incredible students behind these green innovations are the future leaders who will be powering London’s booming green economy. I look forward to seeing these students develop and succeed, whether through a fantastic internship at Siemens or by turning their ideas into thriving new businesses, they will help shape London’s economic future.”

Winfield (Environmental Technology MSc) and Jacobson (Green Chemistry MRes) embarked on Crowd Power Plant six months ago after exploring the crowdfunding scene and realizing the potential for the application of crowdfunding to the energy industry. Speaking to Felix, Winfield explained that the aim of the idea was to buy export tariffs (excess electricity) produced by solar panels on residential properties and then sell the electricity in bulk on the market. Further discussion revealed the progress of the project so far: an exploration of the legal barriers to entry to the energy markets. By acquiring a large amount of electricity from lots of individual suppliers the team should be able to play a substantial role in the electricity market.

The team plans to develop their web presence and liaise with the Greater London Authority and the Mayor’s office in the coming months, with a hope to begin in the new year.

£5000 of the £20,000 prize went to Kirsty Kenney and Harold Craston (SolarBox) from LSE who plan to turn unused telephone boxes in London into public phone charging outlets powered by solar panels.

Blocks, created by Imperial students Omer El Fakir, Serge Vasylechko, Alireza Tahmaseb Zadeh, Karl Taylor, Hakeem Javaid and Andrey Antyufeev, was also shortlisted for the award. The team devised the concept of a modular smartwatch (as reviewed by Felix in March) that can evolve to meet the changing expectations of consumers.

Meanwhile, Dr. Michele Serri (Materials) and Physics PhD student from Imperial were also in the shortlist. Their idea, Light-Fi, “integrates the lighting infrastructure to the intranet within an office to fully automate the lighting environment.

The automation will be able to turn off lights when all colleagues have left the office for the night, thereby saving energy.”

Another Imperial group, the Energy Defenders formulated their idea due to a desire to “inspire the next generation, the way in which the road safety hedgehog did, but for reducing carbon emissions”. The team is formed of 3rd year Aeronautical engineers Emma Dixon, Madeleine Alexander, Oliver Bauer, Ravina Bains and 3rd year Mechanical engineers Jonathan Crawford, Mo Alemohammed, Ewan Armstrong.

They started the idea at the start of the year and are hoping to continue after graduation. Hoping to market the concept to children, parents, teachers and government, the team are “a system of services developed around a brand, the Energy Defenders”. The brand will “create interest in energy saving, through activity days, interactive apps, engaging websites... and an animated cartoon series”.