Clean Tech Innovation Takes The Prize

Kjeller Vindteknikk senior advisor Erik Berge and managing director Lars Tallhaug accept the 2009 Innovation Prize from then NHO director general Finn Bergesen Jr. © NHO/Anne Birgitte Hjelseth

In the past several years, there has been a clear increase in the number of clean tech finalists for the Confederation of Norwegian Enterprises’ Innovation Prize, the award recognizing commercially successful products and services with the most promising future. This latest trend highlights the revitalization of two of Norway’s traditional industries, oil and shipping, and brings them into a new green technology era.

The Confederation of Norwegian Enterprises (NHO), the main representative body for Norwegian employers, created the Innovation Prize in 1981. In the beginning, many of the awards went to the oil service sector, a natural reflection of the country’s booming petroleum industry. One example is EMGS, which won for its innovative survey technology that finds offshore oil and gas reservoirs by sending electromagnetic energy into the rocks beneath the seabed.

Lately, though, the winners and finalists have been going to companies in renewable energy and environmental technology. In 2007, Wema won for its work in reducing NO2 emissions from diesel motors. In 2009, one of the three finalists was Metallkraft, a slurry recovery company for the solar cell industry, and the winner Kjeller Vindteknikk, a wind measuring consultancy provider that has successfully tapped the offshore wind power market.

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Source: Nortrade