For the first time, Ecuador wins the ‘Schneider Go Green’ contest, which rewards the most innovative energy efficiency projects.
The four winners of the regional energy efficiency contest: Dorean Acosta, María Eliza Moreno, Ruben Macías and Katherine Serrano.
Four university students from Ecuador won first place in the contest on energy efficiency, which had 1,211 competitors from five Latin American countries.
This is the first time that the country has won this competition called ‘Schneider Go Green’, and organized globally by the European company of the same name.
Every year the multinational invites university students from all over the world to submit their best ideas of sustainability and efficiency in the energy sector.
And in 2023, the young Dorean Acosta, María Eliza Moreno, Ruben Macías and Katherine Serrano developed an innovative project called ‘AquaEnergy’.
They belong to the Electronics and Automation Engineering program at the Universidad de las Américas (UDLA) in Quito.
Regarding the winning project, Acosta comments that it is a mechanism that takes advantage of the flow of sewage from a building, so that energy consumption is more efficient.
At the moment, buildings worldwide represent 30% of total CO₂ emissions, and finding innovative solutions is key to limiting climate change.
‘AguaEnergy’ is a kind of micro hydroelectric power station that transforms wastewater into clean electrical energy.
In addition, it obtains energy through the processing of solid waste.
“Not only did we get technical support, but also human support, because they taught us to express ourselves, to be confident, and to sell our idea,” added Acosta.
Winners of this contest receive an international trip to showcase their idea to other judges, and also get professional mentoring from company experts.
