Energy saving innovation
The green energy agenda is in full swing. The
progress that the green agenda made at COP 18
in Doha, Qatar in December 2012 represented
one of the first overt examples of the new face of
global agreement on the climate issue. Now that
governments throughout the world have agreed
upon a framework in which to work in order to cut
carbon emissions, an extra impetus has been given to
renewable energy projects.
The production of renewable energy however, is only
part of the solution to a wider problem. Inefficient
energy use is one of the most important issues that
we face in modern times and an easier place to start
is in the efficient consumption of the energy that we
already use. Thankfully, a number of companies are
carving niches in particular areas with regard to this
issue.
One such company is Nujira. This UK-based
company specialises in high-tech products that
optimise the energy efficiency of radio transmitters
used in mobile communications and has significant
implications for that most ubiquitous of modern-day
contraptions, the mobile phone.
Nujira has taken a technology that was first
theorised in the 1930s, and has cleverly engineered
its theoretical constructs into a commercial
reality - cutting energy consumption for today’s
telecommunications companies and consumers.
Jeremy Hendy, Sales & Marketing Director, explains
that,
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“Nujira has solutions for reducing the energy
consumption of the masts at the base stations, and
also at the individual mobile phone level. With
regard to the base stations, which are “always on”,
and typic ally waste up to 80% of the energy supplied
to them, our technology cuts energy wastage in half,
and has already been incorporated into several base
stations. Our offering at the handset level is also
compelling.”
“The transition from 3G to 4G means that the
efficiency of the radio transmitter is even lower”, he
continues, “and this has consequent effects on the
energy required by the device. Our technology results
in less heat, faster data, and longer battery life for the
phone itself.”
Energy consumption is one of the single largest costs
that mobile phone operators incur. According to
Vodafone, the cellular industry uses around 75 billion
KW per year, of which 80% is in the base station
networks. As Hendy notes, “The evolution from 3G
to 4G is a great inflection point for the business.”
The broad application of the technology has attracted
“universal interest” from base station manufacturers
such as Sumitomo, Ericsson, Nokia-Siemens, AlcatelLucent and Huawei. The company is also working
with several “household names” in the handset
industry, and expects the technology to be widely
adopted in 2013.
This potential was recognised by investors Amadeus
Capital Partners, Climate Capital Change Private
Equity, Environmental Technologies Fund and
Mitsubishi UFJ Capital. Nujira has raised $60 million
in venture capital investment from these four funds in
order to develop their technologies.
With an intellectual property portfolio that includes
135 different patents, it seems that the company is
looking to position itself as a trailblazer in this niche
technology, which has vast potential.