Indeximate Ltd., a start-up founded in the UK in 2022, has won RWE’s second global Innovation Competition. The competition was launched with the aim to find innovative solutions in the domains of system integration, circularity and environmental protection in offshore wind that can support RWE´s growth ambitions and sustainability targets.
In order to select the winner, RWE performed a thorough technical assessment with a jury made up of leading RWE experts from all relevant fields, and evaluated the potential of the submitted innovations. This year’s winner suggested an innovative fibre optic sensing based approach, which can support preventive maintenance of subsea cables and at the same time monitor vessel traffic as well as the underwater environment, and thus build a picture of the ecology pattern of marine life in offshore wind farms.
During a ceremony at RWE’s headquarters in Essen, the winner was presented with the specially-made award by Anika Borm, Technical Innovation Lead at RWE Offshore Wind: “As one of the world’s leading renewable energy companies, RWE promotes the pursuit of innovation in offshore wind. To support this ambition, we have launched our Innovation Competition. Combining our own expertise with promising new technology concepts will support us in achieving RWE’s ambitious growth and sustainability targets. From a large number of high-quality applications, Indeximate emerged as the winner. The innovative element of their solution is the ‘Indeximation’ of acoustic data, ensuring a more detailed and targeted analysis of acoustic signatures in the subsea soundscape. In addition to cable condition monitoring, this system will provide for vessel as well as marine mammal identification and tracking. The technology has thus great potential for creating exciting insights into the ecological systems and supporting the preventive maintenance of RWE’s global offshore wind fleet.”
The three founders of Indeximate have long-standing experience and expertise in acoustic and fibre optic sensing. Dr Chris Minto, co-founder of Indeximate Ltd.: “We are hugely honoured to receive this prestigious award and are excited at the opportunity to demonstrate how we can bring long-term sensing intelligence gains to RWE via cable condition monitoring.”
Through the award the Indeximate team became part of RWE’s Technical Innovation programme, which grants access to leading experts and the opportunity to further develop and test their innovative solution under real-life conditions. At the beginning of 2024, RWE and Indeximate signed a letter of intent to jointly assess the opportunity to pilot Indeximate’s technology at the RWE-operated Arkona offshore wind farm, located 35 kilometers northeast of the German island of Rügen in the Baltic Sea. With an installed capacity of 385 megawatts Arkona can supply the equivalent of approximately 400,000 German households with green electricity.
