© Mike Lewinski
© Mike Lewinski

KIC InnoEnergy students in MIT Climate CoLab final

Two KIC InnoEnergy master’s students will compete in the MIT Climate CoLab Grand Challenge final after their project achieved the most votes in the Energy Supply 2016 category.

Michiel Roelofs and Nikodem Bienia created the Collective Power Platform, a local peer-to-peer energy trading market for prosumers.

CEO of KIC InnoEnergy Diego Pavia said: “The whole idea behind our master’s school is to make the links between the academic and the commercial, to encourage students to think about the market applications for the engineering concepts they’re working on. Michiel and Nikodem have created something that could really make a difference in terms of managing local grids and empowering consumers. The fact that they’re now on their way to Boston shows that their concept has real merit on the international stage. We’ll all be cheering them on in September and I wish them every success.”

Votes for the project exceeded expectation and led to its winning the Popular Choice Award for the energy supply category. Roelofs and Bienia thereby entered the final stage of the competition, taking an automatic place at the MIT Climate CoLab Crowds & Climate conference (28-29 September) in Boston, USA, and joining the winners of other categories on campus to present their work and compete for a grand prize of USD 10,000 (~€8,800).

To find out more about the Collective Power Platform, click here.

To find out more about the MIT Climate CoLab Conference, click here.