Start-ups with energy for change
Efficient use of renewable energies, CO2-free cooling: two recently established German companies are taking action to tackle climate change with innovative ideas.
Ralf Isermann ,
07.11.2024 
Data for the energy transition
Sierra Leone opts to collaborate with the German start-up Vida. With funding from the World Bank, the West African country’s Ministry of Energy and the Munich-based company are working together to provide all Sierra Leoneans with access to electricity by 2030. Vida provides the authorities with data and information that is crucial to the development of the electricity grid and the establishment of renewable energies.
The Munich-based company has developed software that provides information enabling the efficient building of infrastructures for the supply of renewable energies. Vida’s algorithms analyse a range of data to assess the risks involved with different types of infrastructure at a given site, including wind farms, solar parks, new power grids and data centres. Investors can draw on this the data to determine which site is most suitable before such structures are built. Vida now offers databases for over 100,000 sites in more than 40 countries.
Cooling without greenhouse gases
Making sure the iced tea stays cold: Magnotherm is looking to bring about a global revolution in refrigeration technology – but without people noticing any difference. Based in Darmstadt in Hesse, the company promises to ensure that both rooms and food can continue to be kept cool in the usual way with its ecofriendly new technology.
The Magnotherm managers talk of a vicious circle when it comes to cooling: the warmer the world becomes as a result of climate change, the more cooling is needed. But conventional gas compression cooling involves high levels of greenhouse gas emissions, so the problem of climate change is in fact exacerbated. For this reason, Magnotherm works with a new type of magnetic cooling technology that produces no greenhouse gases. Instead it uses magnets and magnetic metals for cooling, subsequently transferring the cold using a water-based liquid. The technology is already being deployed at a supermarket in Darmstadt – a world first: a drinks fridge has been installed there that no longer produces greenhouse gases.
