Excellence Awards 2022: the winners

Below you can find all the winners from the 2022 Excellence Awards which celebrate the greatest achievements and innovations in the industry. The programme provides a platform to recognise the people and companies that are driving change.

Our programme is designed to highlight excellence within the sector by looking at a range of corporate activities including deals, business projects and company initiatives, both internal and in the community.

You can also download our full Awards & Rankings Report which includes all of this year’s rankings, as well as the awards winners, shortlists and company profiles.

Below you can find all the winners from the 2022 Excellence Awards which celebrate the greatest achievements and innovations in the industry. The programme provides a platform to recognise the people and companies that are driving change.

Our programme is designed to highlight excellence within the sector by looking at a range of corporate activities including deals, business projects and company initiatives, both internal and in the community.

You will also soon be able to download our full Awards & Rankings Report which includes all of this year’s rankings, as well as the awards winners, shortlists and company profiles.

Business Expansion is one of our largest categories and looks at the core functions of business operations within the sector.

This consists of any projects that have expanded the company’s footprint in the sector, including: contract wins; launching in new territories; launching new product lines; the acquisition and expansion of facilities and real estate; acquisition of new machinery or other assets; improved logistics; partnerships; and significant staff increases.

Siemens Gamesa wins the Business Expansion award this year afer securing a raft of notable contracts across the globe including a noticeable increase in the Asia-Pacific region in locations such as Japan, the Philppines and Taiwan.

The company also launched an offshore wind partnership with Doosan Enerbility.

Shortlist

• Acciona
• ACWA Power
• Enel
• Equinor
• Iberdrola
• Masdar
• Ørsted
• RWE
• Siemens Gamesa
• TotalEnergies
• Vattenfall
• Vestas

The Environmental category aims to highlight companies that are undertaking projects that reduce their impact on the natural environment or contribute to its general health. With the effects of climate change becoming ever more obvious, corporations have a responsibility to update and change their practices to prevent further damage being caused.

This category includes any projects that have led or will lead to a significant reduction in a company’s environmental impact and carbon footprint. This can include changes to materials and manufacturing, supply chain reviews; reduction in energy use or switches to renewables; recycling initiatives; and carbon offsetting. The category also includes projects that contribute to the environment such as tree planting schemes and river cleaning.

Neptune Energy and RWE win our Environmental award this year following the announcement of their joint development of an offshore green hydrogen demonstration project.

The project known as H2opZee will consist of a facility with 300MW to 500MW of electrolyser capacity to produce green hydrogen by using offshore wind. Following this, the hydrogen will be transported onshore through an existing pipeline with 10GW to 12GW capacity.

The project will support building a hydrogen economy in the Netherlands and fuel the country’s energy transition.

Shortlist

• EDF
• Neptune Energy
• Net Zero Technology Centre
• RWE

Financing recognises companies and institutions that have raised significant capital during the research period whether it be through corporate finance, the capital markets or fund raising.

This includes any significant raising of finance by a company within the sector, this can include corporate lending, funding rounds and equity and debt capital markets issues including share offers and bond issues. We will be specifically looking at high value deals; novel structures; and companies using (for them) new forms of financing such as high-yield bonds.

Aquila Clean Energy, a unit of Aguila Capital, wins our Financing award this year as it secured $996m of funding for the development of new projects.

The facility includes a €400m loan from the European Investment Bank (EIB) through its InvestEU programme, as well as €600m from a consortium of commercial banks.

The funds raised will be used to develop 2.6GW of renewable energy projects in Spain and Portugal over the next three years.

The projects will be built at various locations including Castilla y León, Comunidad Valenciana, Andalucía, Cantabria, Castilla-La Mancha and Murcia in Spain and Setúbal, Coimbra, Evora and Leiria in Portugal.

Shortlist

• Avantus
• Agilitas
• Aquila Clean Energy
• Britishvolt
• Morrow Batteries
• NextEnergy Capital
• Sun Cable
• Sweihan PV Power

Innovation is the category with one of the widest scopes within the Excellence Rankings as it looks at novel new approaches in every area, from the fruits of research and development to novel new business practices. What all the ranked entities have in common is the demonstration of new concepts not just within their own business but in the sector as a whole.

The category includes any projects that demonstrate an innovative approach to the market. The category crosses over with many of our other categories and can include new products, novel product features, new business practices, new marketing and sales strategies and more.

A consortium of universities and research organisations consisting of the University of Surrey, Imperial College London, the Centre for Nanophotonics and the Advanced Research Centre for Nanolithography win the Innovation award this year for the development of solar cells 100 times thinner than paper,

The 1μm (micrometre) thick solar cell is capable of converting 66.5% of sunlight into electricity, generating 26.3mA/cm² (milliampere per square centimetre) under test conditions. This marks a 25% increase on the previous ultra-thin solar record of 19.72 mA/cm² achieved in 2017.

The developers estimate that the cells could further improve to 33.8mA/cm². This would create a photovoltaic cell with 21% efficiency, roughly in line with larger panels.

Shortlist

• CIP
• GE Renewable Energy
• Trina Storage
• University of Surrey/Imperial College London/Centre for Nanophotonics/Advanced Research Centre for Nanolithography
• Xidian University
• Yara

The Investments category looks at any significant financial investments into a company or its assets, specifically those investments that facilitate expansion of a company’s operations. This can be an investment by the company itself into its operations or by an outside investor be that another company, financial institution, private equity or venture capital firm.

Terna wins our Investments award this year following the announcement of significant investment in Italy’s energy transition, energy independence and decarbonisation efforts.

The company announced a €10bn programme focused on the development of electricity infrastructure, integration of renewable sources and energy storage systems, as well as cross-border interconnections.

The company plans to invest €9.5bn to develop, upgrade and strengthen the national transmission grid, €2.6bn to reorganise Italy’s existing infrastructure and replace its overhead lines with underground cables and make a €1.3bn investment in the Defence Plan to boost the system’s technical and technological capabilities.

Shortlist

• 50Hertz
• Adani Green Energy
• AMPYR Solar Europe
• First Solar
• Iberdrola
• KKR
• National Grid
• Ocean Winds
• Panasonic
• Samsung SDI
• Tata Power
• Terna
• US Department of Energy

This category includes organisations that have expanded their business operations by entering into significant mergers and acquisitions deals within the sector.

The category specifically looks at the acquisitions of whole businesses or stakes rather than asset transactions and deals must have been closed during the research period.

Bouygues wins our M&A award this year following its acquisition of Equans for $8.2bn.

The deal is the largest the company has ever undertaken and will strength its standing in the multi-technical services market. The company’s new combined arm is estimated to generate €17 billion in sales and employ around 97,000 people in over 20 countries.

Shortlist

• Bouygues
• ConocoPhillips
• Cosan
• Cummins
• Eneva
• Equatorial Energia
• MasTec
• PPL Corp
• Shell Overseas Investments

This category includes organisations that have demonstrated a commitment to the research and development of new products and/or new processes. This can include discovering or creating a unique material, transferring a research or technology development to practice, improving the performance of an existing product or creating a new simulation or design tools.

The category also includes companies that have made significant investments into their R&D processes.

Equinor wins our Research and Development award this year following the announcement of a number of notable research ventures.

These include the launch of an offshore wind innovation hub in New York in partnership with BP. The new hub will create a physical location for offshore wind programming and host workshops, educational programmes and curricula for the start-ups.

The company also entered into a partnership with Technip Energies to develop floating wind steel semi-substructures. The partnership aims to expedite the technology development for floating offshore wind projects, as well as reduce costs and develop local value opportunities.

Shortlist

• Engie
• Equinor
• Keppel Energy Nexus
• Mitsubishi Power
• Northvolt and Stora Enso
• PSG College of Technology/University of Sheffield
• Renewable Parts/Strathclyde University