EDP Renewables (Euronext: EDPR), the fourth-largest renewable energy producer in the world, named its University Challenge winner from all of the projects submitted by students from both domestic Spanish and international universities in a ceremony presided over by Miguel Stilwell d'Andrade, chief executive of EDP and EDPR.

The end goal behind the awards is a drive for university students from various specialisms - such as marketing, business administration and management and engineering - to come up with innovative initiatives which can then be applied to the field of renewable energies.  The winning project from this edition was ‘Green Marine: solar package powered standard container cargo ships from KTH - Royal Institute of Technology’. The other two projects were Automated solar panel cleaning solution, as developed by Polytechnic University of Catalonia – Barcelona School of Industrial Engineering students, and Athena: the energy storage connection service submitted by Aalto University, the Technical Institute and the Polytechnic of Torino students. 

The EDPR University Challenge programme was originally started in Spain in 2009 as part of reinforcing EDPR's commitment to the energy transition via centralised social investment strategies bolstering this end mission.  Over the course of the programme's history over 1,900 students and 400 lecturers from Spanish and international universities have participated, submitting over 800 projects.  

In the words of Miguel Stilwell d’Andrade, CEO at EDP and EDPR: “We are absolutely delighted to once again hold another edition of our University Challenge. Not only is it a way for us to see what is happening within university communities and the young, diverse talent they foster but also because within the 15 years we have run this programme we are still seeing new and innovative ideas capable of pushing the just energy transition forwards. The knowledge inputs provided are invaluable in terms of our end goal of meeting sustainable development challenges”.