OpenHydro, the Irish tidal energy technology company, has been named Best Company in the ‘Other Renewable Energy’ category by the Global Cleantech Cluster Association. Winning the GCCA Later Stage Award demonstrates OpenHydro’s significant success in the growing cleantech industry. OpenHydro was nominated for the GCCA Later Stage Award by GCCA Member Cluster An tSlí Ghlas, The Green Way – Ireland’s Cleantech Cluster in May 2011.
OpenHydro has won the GCCA 2011 Later Stage Award for other renewable energy because of its leading edge position in the marine renewables sector. The company’s expertise in tidal technology, coupled with its business model, market position and potential for international growth are a number of criteria for which OpenHydro is demonstrating excellence and leadership. OpenHydro has successfully delivered a number of world firsts in the industry – being the first tidal company globally to install a test device at the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) in Orkney, the first to connect to the UK grid, and the first to successfully install and deploy 1MW and 2.2MW rated devices commercially.
The GCCA Later Stage Award Top 10 winners were selected from an original pool of 4,000 eligible companies represented by the GCCA’s 33 member clusters. Each cluster conducted internal evaluations to nominate up to 10 companies in the 10 award categories. In total, these member clusters nominated 185 companies for the 2011 Later Stage Award. That number was later narrowed to the Global Top 30 semi-finalists and to the final Top 10 winners.