Fundación EDPNews

Madrid, 8 October 2014: EDP Renewables (Euronext: EDPR), a global leader in the renewable energy sector and the world's fourth-largest wind energy producer, and the EDP Foundation have announced the winner of the EDPR University Challenge 2014 for students of Spanish universities. The awards ceremony was hosted by João Manso Neto, CEO EDPR.

The five shortlisted groups presented their projects to the audience and the judging panel, which was formed by EDP Renewables executives such as José Ángel Díaz, Technical Support Director; Joaquín García Boto, Head of Project Development for Spain; Ceferino Viescas, Operations and Maintenance Director for Europe. José López-Tafall, President of AEE (Spanish Wind Power Association), and Telmo Vieira, a Partner at Premivalor Consulting, also formed part of the judging panel.

The winning project was entitled “Development of an erosion resistant coating with self-healing properties for wind blades” and was entered by Héctor Sanz Fraile, Israel Arrabé Murillo, Alejandro Doblas Molano and Beatriz Claudia Recio Martínez, students from Universidad Rey Juan Carlos in Madrid, and supervised by Alberto Jiménez Suárez, a professor at the university.

The projects awarded second and third place, were Harnessing onshore marine energy-remora project (device to harness wave power) presented by the Universidad Europea de Madrid y San Pablo CEU and Design tool for Quasi-Zero network impact buildings presented by the Engineering Department at Universidad de Oviedo (Gijón Campus).

As well as the three winning projects, the following two entries were also shortlisted:

• Innovative technology solutions for the expansion of the renewable energy market by better harnessing solar energy, presented by the School of Engineering and Architecture at the Universidad de Zaragoza
• Dynamic management of high voltage power lines to improve the integration into the grid of renewable energies, presented by Universidad de Cantabria

The winning team was awarded a prize of 6,000 euros. The professor who supervised the winning entry was also awarded 3,000 euros. The group awarded second place was given 3,000 euros to be distributed among its members, and 1,500 euros for the coordinating professor. And the group in third place was awarded 2,000 for each group member and 1,000 euros for the supervising professor.

The sixth edition of the EDPR University Challenge has been particularly successfully, attracting 122 university entries, an increase of 45% with respect to the last edition, in which 84 projects from different Spanish universities took part.

João Manso Neto, CEO of EDP Renewables, who hosted the sixth edition of the awards, praised the “quality of the projects presented” describing them as “extremely impressive, as is the number of universities with projects dealing with renewable energy”.

EDP Renewables launched the EDP University Challenge in Spain in 2009 and in Portugal in 2007. The company has organised this contest every year since then to support universities in the practical application of academic knowledge for the development of projects and ideas in the field of renewable energies. The objective of the Challenge is to act as a liaison between the academic and business worlds, incentivising creativity and innovation, as well as fostering knowledge on the renewable energy sector.

For further information on EDPR University Challenge in Spain, visit the website: http://www.edpr-universitychallenge.es/.