Gerard & Anton Award winner Integer Technologies: The alternative for expensive home energy installations

Innovation Origins is putting the winners of the Gerard and Anton Awards 2023 in the spotlight. This edition: Integer Technologies.

Integer Technologies was founded in December of 2021 as the spinoff of Team CASA, a TU Eindhoven student team focused on accelerating the energy transition in the built environment by developing a Comfortable, Affordable, Sustainable, and Alternative solution for Dutch social housing.

The student team project culminated in the construction of the CASA 1.0, a 3-unit apartment building that integrates thermal storage, PV, solar collectors, a central heat pump, and many more into a collective energy installation to meet all the residents’ energy needs. The CASA 1.0 project collaborated with social housing corporation Woonbedrijf, construction company Hurks, Brainport Smart District, and more than 50 other companies.

Although the results of CASA 1.0 were satisfying, the builders discovered “a big problem”, as co-founder Pau Brossa Rodriguez tells us. “One of the main reasons people aren’t switching to sustainable energy installations that combine different energy sources is their underlying complexity. Most buildings still rely on fossil fuels. Existing and upcoming regulations don’t allow this anymore. Unfortunately, the alternatives with heat pumps, solar panels, and energy storage are more difficult to commission and control. And here’s the kicker: as energy prices keep rising, having a badly commissioned and poorly controlled energy system becomes very costly for residents and building owners.”

Give it a go

The result is already tangible: the CASA 1.0 residents currently enjoy heating, cooling, and hot tap water for as low as €15 per month. “Given the strong interest from various project partners to continue collaborating on a commercial level, we decided to give it a go.”

With the ultimate goal of “making sustainable energy available to everyone”, Integer Technologies operates in a market of residential new construction and renovation projects in the EU. “This would amount to more than three million homes a year. In the short term, our focus is on residential social housing in the Netherlands. This is where we believe our solution can have the highest impact.”

In the meantime, the energy transition is in full swing, Brossa Rodriguez notes, offering new opportunities. “Countries such as Germany are banning the use of gas, something unthinkable a couple of years ago. To reach the 2030 goals at both national and EU levels, we must build and renovate at a much higher pace, all while facing a shortage of skilled labor. More than ever, people are conscious of their energy bills. We see the complexity issue becoming more prevalent.”

High expectations

Despite high expectations like these, Integer still has some challenges to overcome. “Because we are at the center of the complexity problem, we had to manage many stakeholders. Creating a solution that properly addresses the customer needs and validating that solution to ensure it fits well across the entire value chain of building developers, installers, housing corporations, and building owners, and, ultimately, the resident was a challenging process.”

The letter of Intent that Integer achieved from one of the largest construction companies in the Netherlands can be called the start-up’s most significant success so far, Brossa Rodriguez says. “It is to apply our solution for a renovation project of 28 apartments. Recognition of our expertise and validation of our solution are essential steps. When dealing with energy installations, you must provide a solid product; otherwise, people have no heating or hot tap water. Now we will deliver!”

Integer is a product of the Brainport Eindhoven ecosystem; what does this mean for the company’s development? “A lot. We are the spinoff of a TU/e student team. The Brabant Startup Fonds and the Rabobank fund us. The Gate supports us; we collaborate and work with local engineering companies, construction companies, and installers.” And although ‘collaboration’ is one of the unique selling points of the Brainport network, he adds that this could still be approved.

“We need more companies willing to work with start-ups and more collaboration among start-ups. More collaboration, in general, would be desirable.”

ELEO

As a winner in the ninth round of the Gerard & Anton Awards, Integer Technologies is part of an already strong tradition. Which of the eighty former winners stands out for Pau Brossa Rodriguez? “Our favorite former winner of the Gerard and Anton Award is ELEO. It is always inspiring to see a hardware start-up succeed and be able to scale up as they have.”