Winning an Enerthon — the Interview
We recently had an interview published about our Enerthon hackathon success, available online in German and French.
As no version in English has been published, we have provided the original here!
Team budo is a group of people with very different backgrounds and sets of expertise, brought together by Annette. Four out of the five lived in Tokyo, Japan, which contributed to the selection of the name Budo, as it means grape in Japanese and provides a simple metaphor in bringing together different silos (grapes) onto a unified platform (or branch).
- Annette: Energy geek, German speaking Italian (Suedtirolerin) based in Paris
- Vicky: Startup obsessive, British/Irish based in Amsterdam
- Eric: Cloud wizard, Dutch based in Munich
- Mariana: Magic designer, Argentine based in Buenos Aires
- Giulio: Data cruncher, Italian based in Paris
Link to prototype demo
Link to prototype
Link to pitch on mainstage
What was your motivation for participating in the enerthon?
Annette: I’ve been passionate about renewable energy for years now. On top of that I love technical challenges and hackathons, especially as a part of a group. When I first heard about this Enerthon from Franca (DENA) I was immediately interested. What stood out to me was the European aspect of it and after having lived in Japan for over seven years I was eager to learn more about the European Energy transition. Plus it was a nice way to catch up and work with my friends on a common project.
Vicky: I guess over the past two years I have made the transition from a more technical role in the energy sector to a commercial one — and I have started thinking that perhaps I want to set up my own startup one day. When Annette gave me the call and told me about the dream team she was assembling I thought this is the perfect chance to give it all a go.
What was your task and how did you solve it?
Annette: None of us had worked with EV before so I was trying to find and understand data and processes involved and explain it to the group. It required a lot of googling and asking around, as well as trying tools and libraries for visualizing spatial data. And finally to come up with proxies and algos to help EV infrastructure planning. Fortunately we had an amazing team with diverse skills, so the most important thing was glueing them together in a short time!
Vicky: On my part I was trying to take this idea of a tool to identify efficient EV charging locations and think about how to develop it into a more rounded product that could also form the basis of a scalable and defensible business. And then, of course, how to pitch that.
What convinced the jury that your idea is the best?
Vicky: That’s hard to say! We had an amazing UX designer on the team who made everything gorgeous and conceptually clear, I think that definitely helped. And what the technical guys managed to pull together was just incredible in only four weeks.
Annette: You should ask them! I think the fact that we had actually implemented an working online-app and that we had thought beyond just the prototype, taking into account all the future stakeholders and how they could benefit from our solution.
What are the next steps for your prototype?
Annette / Vicky: Winning this was a total surprise for us. Our team is based all over the world so it is hard to say how things will go. But definitely I think with this hackathon we were just warming up — we don’t know which direction we will go next but it is certainly not the end of our collaboration.
Which role do you think will data play for the progress of the energy transition?
Vicky: Well, it’s fundamental. We are seeing digitalisation happen in sector after sector and driving huge improvements. Data is information, without it you are going blind. I view the energy transition as the biggest challenge of our generation — so I don’t think going blind is really an option.
Annette: The Energy Transition is creating a more and more complex, decentralized network with millions of components interacting with each other. This is simply not possibly without data. Data is the key to efficiency and reliability and, therefore, to the energy transition.
You found solutions for optimizing cross-border charging infrastructure. What were the particular challenges, and which differences did you notice on each side of the border?
Annette: The challenge is to obtain comparable data for both sides of the border and integrate them into one system: this can be census data by communes (population, income, car ownership, …), but even more importantly grid or EV specific data. In France, Enedis Open Data platform unifies some of the data for all regions and makes it publicly available, but in Germany you would have to ask all the 750 DSOs to get such data!
Vicky: I was amazed by all of the different stakeholders involved in EV charging infrastructure planning, the very manual processes and the lack of data and standardisation. Then cross a border and it completely changes again. That’s what stood out to me.
In which ways do you think will a “digital energy transition” profit from German-French cooperation?
Vicky: As a British/Irish citizen living in the Netherlands, I would argue for a British-Irish-Dutch-German-French collaboration :). But in seriousness, this transition cannot be done in silos, we all need to work across borders and utilise the skills and resources of others. That’s how we make things happen. Looking at France and Germany in particular, they share a border whilst having a very different culture and energy infrastructure makeup, it’s perfect for a collaboration that will bring in diverse perspectives.
Annette: Couldn’t agree more with Vicky (as long as you add Italy to the collaboration). Germany and France have a totally different energy mix and therefore their individual Energy Transitions will look very different and therefore in many aspects be very complementary.
What is your message to anyone thinking about participating in the next enerthon?
Vicky: Push yourself out of your comfort zone and go for it! It’s a great learning opportunity and a means to get yourself out there and make some new connections.
Annette: What are a few sleepless nights over a lifelong experience? Call up your friends — it’s the best way to learn about the Energy Transition and you never know what doors it will open!
