In the WDCD Clean Energy Challenge, we asked the global creative community for their boldest, brightest ideas to accelerate the energy transition in our cities. Twenty proposals were ultimately selected as winners, each of them tackling a different issue inspired by five urban contexts: Amsterdam, Delhi, México City, Nairobi and São Paulo. Today, we take a closer look at the five entries which took home the Moonshot Award: a special commendation worth €5000 in funding plus mentorship from our network of experts.
In this category, also known as the wildcard category, we awarded ideas that might not fully meet the Challenge criteria, but is so thought-provoking that we feel the world should know it. Our jury selected the following five projects for being ambitious, exploratory, and often without any expectation of near-term profitability. As one jury member puts it: “These are our global babies. They emerge from anywhere, can be applied anywhere and they address the energy topic from inside out and from outside in.”
For their refreshing attitude to some of the planet’s most complex problems, these teams deserve a chance to take their projects to the next level. Congratulations!
THE WINNERS
CIRCULAR COMMUNITIES FOR HOUSING
BY RUSHABH CHHEDA & CONSCIOUS DeSIGNS | WINNER MOONSHOT AWARD
This project aims to integrate the local waste recycling economy and the informal housing industry into a decentralized circular economy system. For this purpose, we have designed a set of building elements using plastic and glass waste, which can be produced locally through injection molding. By making housing construction simpler, faster and more sustainable, these simple, stackable building blocks help empower communities to build their own homes.
COMMENTS FROM THE TEAM:
“We are excited to be selected, and hopeful — because this could be the right stage for us, to share our idea with the world and give us the traction we need in order to achieve our vision. For the coming year, we are working on setting up our production facility and a research lab to find new ways to reduce waste and to use our resources more efficiently. We are also working on our first customer order for DUWO, a student housing company, for whom we will be producing a series of interlocking urban furniture using 150 bricks, recycling around 300 kilos of plastic waste!”
COMMENTS FROM THE JURY:
“Simply put, this project is about building a better brick. It repurposes waste and stands out by the ingenuity of the shape. This new shape facilitates a more robust way of stacking. Most other initiatives in this field can’t establish density, whereas this team proposes to build three-story buildings with it. Meanwhile, the production of the blocks is benefitting the local economy.”
THE WASTE TRANSFORMER
BY The Waste Transformers AND FABRICations | WINNER MOONSHOT AWARD
The Waste Transformer is a plug & play innovation which aims to become the IKEA Billy © of the waste world. It is a small-scale, high-impact set of urban furniture that folds open into a modular farm. As such, it is designed as an all-in-one solution to the waste, sanitation, energy, nutrition and environmental challenges facing our cities. The flat-packed model decentralizes the standard waste, food and energy value chain, turning organic waste into value on-site.
COMMENTS FROM THE TEAM:
“By 2035, half of the expected African population of 1.8 billion will be urban. Tackling urban infrastructure with the same old approach, is no longer an option. Healthy urban ecosystems, aimed at vitalizing the economy, increasing life expectancy, connecting people, improving resilience and creating circular material flows, need to be created if we are going to rise to 21st century challenges. Our approach not only aims to implement sustainable energy in cities, but to use the energy transition to create better cities through design.”
COMMENTS FROM THE JURY:
“This project, aptly described by the makers as plug-in infrastructure, gathers around waste while connecting the local community to it. This is an example of igniting systemic change by creating something that is truly circular, occupies very little space and can be replicated in multiple places to improve the entire circular economy. It’s decentralized, yet central to the local community.”
ICONIC ENERGY STORAGE
BY CLEO DE BRABANDER & Rosanne Bouw | WINNER MOONSHOT AWARD
An effective way to preserve sustainable energy is to store water in a reservoir at higher altitudes. By pumping up large amounts of water in times of energy abundance and allowing the stock to flow back when there is a shortage, the back-flowing water can be used to generate electricity. In using old, abandoned industrial water towers to do so, our concept integrates clean energy storage with the preservation of Dutch cultural heritage.
COMMENTS FROM THE TEAM:
“Last year Cleo had a meeting in an office situated in a former water tower. What struck her was that the tower was being converted into offices and a restaurant, having to overcome many difficult and expensive design challenges like insulation, air circulation and lack of natural light to convert the tower to its new function. When she later discussed this topic with our teammates Roel and Travis, who are not necessarily engaged with conserving natural heritage but concerned with other topics (e.g. clean energy storage), we figured out that with a water tower battery concept we could effectively match two challenges that together become a great solution.”
COMMENTS FROM THE JURY:
“A great example of repurposing existing structures for energy in an environment where there is limited space for new built infrastructure. It’s a nice and elegant project that makes a strong public statement. The jury also appreciates the multidisciplinary composition of the team; the idea comes from a designer, who asked engineers and even an former Shell-employee to join the team.”
ELECTRIC WATER HEATER RETROFIT
BY FOREST FRIZZELL & SHIFTED ENERGY | WINNER MOONSHOT AWARD
There are over 600 million electric water heaters throughout the world. These hidden “batteries” can absorb massive renewable generation to shift loads and dramatically decrease peak demand. This off-tank solution minimizes setup and maintenance costs for hot water controls. It also ensures that residents feel no adverse impact. They just get monthly rebates on their electricity bill. By targeting hard-to-reach ratepayers with a cost-effective solution, it enables everyone to participate in the renewable energy revolution.
COMMENTS FROM THE TEAM:
“As the world races towards a renewable energy future we have to have a plethora of solutions that can rapidly and cost-effectively scale the introduction of technologies like wind and solar, but at the same time be inclusive of all residents. I believe we can not only provide critical demand response services, but we can do so by increasing the energy literacy of ratepayers around the world. ”
COMMENTS FROM THE JURY:
“It is the reality of emerging markets that in absence of centralized service provision, in this case water heating, you have people who invest in private household assets. One million households installing one million water heaters, is obviously not an energy efficient solution. This project takes this private infrastructure and brings it on to a public platform. That is a really smart idea. It’s a smart meter for your water heater and shows that utility companies can be part of the solution too.
It may not be (in its current presentation) the best design idea, but these are the kinds of platforms that design has to make itself more relevant for. It is a great invitation to the design community.”
ROOTS ARE THE NEW WIRES
BY KARLIJN ARTS & LIVING LIGHTS | WINNER MOONSHOT AWARD
We aim to harness the natural processes of living plants to generate clean electricity. Using microbial fuel cell technology, our living lamps can turn any green space in Amsterdam into its own light source, without putting any more cables into our crowded streets. We want to replace the street lights by trees, charge our devices in public spaces and create datahubs for the municipality, all through the power of plants.
COMMENTS FROM THE TEAM:
“It is an honour to be selected for this very important challenge. We really hope that together with WDCD we can grow our business and we can potentially show Amsterdam the beauty of nature, reduce greenhouse gases in the city itself and inspire the people passing by.”
COMMENTS FROM THE JURY:
“This project speaks to the poet inside all of us. Living Light is a good example of what this challenge has showed us so beautifully: that clean energy isn’t just confined to wind and solar power, but that it also includes other forms like kinetic energy and energy from nature, from micro-organisms or, in this case, plants. Furthermore, applied in parks this project will attract a lot of people and work as a great advocate for sustainable energy.”
WHAT’S NEXT?
All twenty winners of the Challenge will now enter a dedicated accelerator to help develop their projects further. The 4-month program includes a production budget and expert mentorship, and is designed to give each finalist the tools they need to make their innovation ready for market and financing.
Visit our platform for more information about the timeline, and to view all the submissions in our project gallery. In the coming weeks, we’ll highlight more winners for each city right here on the blog, as well as on our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.