Summary
The 7th UN SDG is to "ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all". This is achieved because EnAccess strives to make its materials open access to allow businesses in the energy sector to use its resources.
Innovation
The team is composed of several computer scientists and experts in the field of energy. It was originally founded as an idea in a coffee shop, but the founder has since taken on a more advisory role.
The team strives to increase access to energy innovation resources in the next few years by creating open access software solutions. They have software resources on GitHub and also share resources with companies. They now have some funding to help fund other companies, but they are not heavily involved with this facet of business.
Open access is a novel concept from the past few years as technology has improved. This company is using the innovative solution of open access to allow more people to have access to energy.
Currently, the company is in its development phase where they started developing technologies in-house and resulting in improving documentation, adaptability, and understanding of the technology. EnAccess is developing their open source software based on customer proposals, expert consultation, and consumer-level benefit analysis.
Inspiration
The person we interviewed is the current CEO, but not the original founder. What he said inspired the original founder during a "coffee break" with one of the founder's friends. They sat down one day and began talking about how the energy industry kept needing to reinvent the wheel because innovation was not shared. This is where the idea for EnAccess began. The plan was discussed further, money was put in, and inspiration turned into an organization.
Overall impact
In the short term, EnAccess has been able to fund an energy company. This other company also helps carry out the goals of SDG 7. This is evidenced by the mission statements and progress listed on both of the company websites.
Another impact is its sharing of open access resources. Though this is a bit harder to quantify, this can be evidenced by participation in EnAccess's GitHub and the audience's at their conferences.
Business benefit
EnAccess is currently being funded by a couple other organizations. This is what gets EnAccess a majority of its operating revenue. However, they have put money into other businesses, but this is something they stay away from as it poses a high amount of risk.
Social and environmental benefit
This innovation benefits society by allowing for many innovations developed by companies to be shared to other companies. In many cases, when one company develops an innovation, it keeps it private and innovation is stunted. However, with the open access innovation of EnAccess, the wheel no longer needs to be reinvented. Innovations to better energy access is readily spread, and the world benefits from any improvements.
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Interview
Vivien Barnier,
CEO
Business information
EnAccess
US
Year Founded:
2018
Number of Employees:
2 to 10
EnAccess provides open access to software and hardware to allow for innovation in the energy sector. It specifically targets under resourced areas that could benefit from energy improvement.
