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Energy-IoT startup raises capital for expansion

Austria’s Hydrogrid is preparing for its expansion to other European markets. For this reason, it raised a seven-digit euro sum in investments. The company develops control software for hydroelectric power plants and is already represented in Norway, Sweden, Finland, Turkey and the UK.

Credit: investinaustria.at
Credit: investinaustria.at

Hydrogrid secured fresh capital from Constantia New Business, the investment arm of Constantia Industries AG, in order to finance its further expansion, ABA — Invest in Austria reports. In addition to entering other European markets, the company plans to extend its product portfolio and the company’s own algorithms in the future. This will also enable the intelligent control in real time of larger hydropower plants (>100 power generation capacity) on the basis of weather and market prices.

The existing potential of hydropower is enormous but is not being sufficiently exploited. In order to fulfil the climate targets of the Green Deal 2050, it will be necessary to effectively and intelligently control and manage all flexible power plants and storage options in real time. This is the only way to ensure network stability in the future as well while simultaneously expanding wind and solar power generation,” states CEO Janice Goodenough.

An enormous potential lies dormant in just the more than 17K small-scale hydropower plants in the European market. The Hydrogrid solution increases electricity production on the basis of a more efficient use of the existing water by up to 12%, thus helping to eliminate energy from climate-damaging sources such as coal from the international electricity mix, the company says. In this way, the same amount of CO₂ emissions can be saved each year as the entire volume of emissions caused by hydropower.

In addition to hydropower, the Hydrogrid solution can also be slightly adjusted for other types of renewable energies, for example wind and solar energy or the optimization of battery storage systems.

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