Samuel Manjarrez
PATRICIA CAMPOS
Sergio Saldana
Samir Ipenza
EGADE Business School Tecnologico de Monterrey
Ezequiel Reficco
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Inventive Power is a Mexican company which develops solar thermal technology for process heat generation in industrial and commercial applications through patented linear parabolic solar collectors. This technology allows for reaching higher temperatures than similar products available in the market, thus achieving a material reduction in the consumption of fossil fuels and therefore CO2 emissions.
Inventive Power has two types of patented parabolic solar collectors which focuses the sunlight on a linear tube containing any kind of fluid, heating this fluid to high temperatures to produce hot water, steam or hot air; The Power Trough 110, reaching temperatures from 45° to 130° Celsius, and The Power Trough 250, reaching temperatures from 90° to 260° Celsius. This technology is complemented by the Power Tracker Pro, which is a ground breaking, electronic measurement and control system device that allows the solar collectors to track the trajectory of the sun, increasing up to 40% the solar radiation efficiency compared to ordinary solar panels.
Nowadays, industries such as food, textile, pharmaceutical, chemical, hotels, and a big etcetera, rely on burning fossil fuels such as natural gas, LP gas or even coal, for the generation of hot water or steam in their production processes. This activity not only represents an economic disadvantage due to the increase and fluctuation in fossil fuel prices, but also a huge source of pollutant CO2 that goes directly into the environment where these industries are located. Inventive Power promises to reduce the consumption of the fuels by up to 80% using only the free, unlimited energy of the sun. Consisting of modular technology, collectors can be installed at any rooftop or open area at a business of any size.
How are Inventive Power efforts improving the world? First off, by providing access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all kinds of industries, ensuring thus that such industries utilize clean energy for their production patterns. Lastly, Inventive Power not only “sells” their idea of cheap energy but also evangelizes their clients to convince them that climate change is real, and it is everyone’s responsibility to work against it.
“Both (of us) are very passionate about renewable energies”, states Angel Mejía, CEO of Inventive Power, referring to his business partner and friend Aldo Agraz, while explaining how Inventive Power came to be. The idea of Inventive Power, same as numerous innovation ideas around the world, sparked out of a university project. Both Angel and Aldo were about to finish their Mechatronics Engineering Degree at Tecnológico de Monterrey campus Guadalajara and needed to deliver an innovative project in order to graduate; they wanted to create something related to clean and renewable energy.
“We saw that there are a lot of solutions in the solar field… but there was no solution for industries that want to generate thermal energy in their (own) facilities.” The idea was born, however it was a long road before developing Inventive Power into what it is today. As part of their push to develop the idea, both partners obtained a Master’s Degree in Energy Science, and after intensive research, Inventive Power officially opened their doors in 2010. Locking in funding was no easy task for Angel and Aldo, however their innovation caught the attention of many, and they were able to present their idea at several prestigious competitions, receiving thus numerous awards including Eco-Entrepreneur Top 15 Companies, Laureate for The Tech Awards, Intel Global Challenge, Cleantech Challenge Mexico, and a big etcetera.
Shortly after Inventive Power’s inauguration, they received funding for research and development from the Mexican Science and Technology National Counsel (Conacyt) and ever since, they’ve had exponential growth every year to date.
Inventive Power is a Mexican company based in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. Jalisco is one of the states with the greatest number of university graduates. This is important because matching the demand and the offer of skilled personnel is tough; one of the perceivable impacts of Inventive Power is that they hire and develop local personnel, produce locally and procure most of their components within Mexico, while most of the solar energy oriented devices are imported from China or Europe.
Jalisco is also one of the most industrialized states in the country, however Mexico overall is still labeled as a Developing Country, where its economy’s main driver are small to medium businesses, most of which do not have access nor can fund new technologies to reduce their footprint. Inventive Power seeks to reduce this problematic by offering clean, affordable technology in Process Heat Generation. It is clean because it uses the energy of the sun, therefore reducing the dependency of fossil fuel burning up to 80%, greatly and positively impacting the environment through reduction of CO2 emissions. It is affordable because Inventive Power offers different types of financing that match their client’s needs, including a scheme that entails no down payment. Also, these products are considered a Capital Expenditure Investment, which means that they are tax deductible.
Finally, besides reducing their environmental footprint, companies greatly reduce their costs in Process Heat Generation by decreasing their spend in fossil fuels, where prices are quite fluctuant and steadily increasing. Furthermore, on average, businesses can expect a return of investment of these products in three years, while the life span is 20 years; afterwards, Inventive Power will offer a retro-fit program to update the solar collectors to embed future technologies.
At Inventive Power, the technology in linear parabolic solar collectors does not benefit the business, it is the business. The core of the company is their innovation in Process Heat Generation and they have built a profitable business around it.
Last year, Inventive Power’s revenue was 4 million USD, highest revenue in their history, despite being election year when usually investments slow down. This number may not seem too high, however, considering that the initial investment in the first four years of the company was 12,500 USD, 4 million does not sound bad at all. In 2013, one year after Inventive Power started selling their products, their growth was 93% compared to the previous year. In 2014 its growth was 260% and after that, they’ve grown around 100% on a yearly basis.
Today, Inventive Power has successfully installed over 100 projects in several states of Mexico including clients such as Nestle, Jose Cuervo, Agrana Fruit, Unilever, Holiday Inn, Howard Johnson, etc. This translates into more than five thousand collectors and more importantly, the reduction of more than five thousand tons of CO2 released into the atmosphere. Inventive Power has more than 250 prospects in the pipeline in a market estimated to be more than 1.2 billion USD in size. Feel free to check out clients’ testimonies at the Inventive Power webpage.
As it has been mentioned a few times, the main objective of Inventive Power is to reduce the cost of fossil fuel consimption and at the same time, reduce the CO2 emissions, being supported by a great team of collaborators that work at the company.
That being said, it is self explanatory that the reduction in CO2 emissions greatly benefits the environment as it helps slow down the greenhouse effects in the atmosphere. In this manner, as more industries start adopting cleaner technologies, the communities where they are based will enjoy cleaner air, less respiratory illnesses and better health overall.
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Inventive Power is a Mexican company which develops solar thermal technology for process heat generation in industrial and commercial applications through patented linear parabolic solar collectors. This technology allows for reaching higher temperatures than similar products available in the market, thus achieving a material reduction in the consumption of fossil fuels and therefore CO2 emissions.