Innovation company InnoEnergy and industry organisation WindEurope will partner to sponsor a joint ‘hackathon’, which will develop wind energy technologies for the future.
The second annual hackathon has been dubbed “Hack the Wind” and will split participants into teams to develop wind energy technologies and compete for a share of a €20,000 prize. The event will be held at the WindEurope Conference 2018, which will run from 25-28 September 2018 in Hamburg, Germany.
To be awarded a share of the prize, participants will be challenged to propose and present innovative and implementable solutions to a series of potential challenges facing the wider rollout of wind energy. Challenges will relate to a variety of relevant areas, including blockchain applications and predictive maintenance, which means that solutions will have a potentially transformative impact on the viability of the sector.
What are WindEurope and InnoEnergy’s expectations for the hackathon?
More than 80 participants took part in the inaugural Hack the Wind hackathon in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and prize-winning solutions included an artificial intelligence-based predictive maintenance solution developed by Jungle AI.
The organisers expect a greater number of participants this year, and hope that the technologies and solutions presented at the event will help to fulfil the potential of wind energy as a clean, renewable source. As well as the opportunity to fund and develop wind energy technologies, such hackathons offer innovators a chance to form partnerships which can also serve to further the implementation of wind power.
What have the stakeholders said about the event?
For WindEurope’s deputy CEO Malgosia Bartosik, the event could become an annual opportunity to accelerate the development of the wind energy industry. She expressed her hope that the hackathon would continue to grow in popularity: “We are always looking for ways to make our conference better, and last year’s Hack the Wind was a brilliant way of not only giving attendees something to learn from but of fostering innovations and creating new start-ups. We are tremendously excited to see this year’s event build on that success.”
