This year, BNEF is looking for innovations across hydrogen, metals and materials, and food production.
For 2023, the Pioneers prize will be awarded to companies working on innovations that address the following challenges:
Accelerating the deployment of clean hydrogen. Hydrogen and its derivatives currently play a small role in the global energy system and are rarely produced in a low-carbon manner. The clean hydrogen sector faces many challenges as it seeks to swiftly build out a new value chain while also reducing costs. Innovations in this area could include low-carbon production methods, new electrolyzer designs that improve efficiency or renewable-energy integration, better storage and transport equipment, or novel utilization technologies across buildings, industry, power and transport.
Sustainable metals and materials for an electrified future. The scale-up of clean energy, along with the electrification of heating, transport and industrial activities, will require a rapid escalation in the supply of lithium, copper, cobalt, nickel and others. However, the extraction of these materials also needs to minimize the impact on biodiversity, and water and land use where possible. Innovations that could address these challenges include novel material extraction and recycling techniques, and technologies that reduce demand for materials by improving the efficiency of their use.
Applications for the 2023 BNEF Pioneers program are here.
The competition closes on November 18.
