From humble beginnings to global impact

The humble garage: home of lawnmowers, old tins of paint, and almost certainly a cluster of spiders.

But the garage has also become a symbol of  innovation, the origin for any number of entrepreneurs and tech moguls. And nowhere is more iconic as the starting point for some of the most successful businesses of our time than Silicon Valley – from students William R. Hewlett and David Packard in their garage in Palo Alto, California, through to Amazon, Google, and countless more offering tales of simple starts in similar spaces. 

Silicon Valley is a community worth around £2.3 trillion thanks to the tech giants in this famous part of the San Francisco Bay area. Each year, Silicon Valley invests around $80 billion in venture capital, creating 22% of the world’s unicorns (a unicorn is a startup company valued at $1 billion which is privately owned and not listed on a share market – named after the mythical animal to represent the statistical rarity of such successes). 

Of course, in such an environment and with resources like world-class universities and a tech workforce of more than 400,000 on the doorstep, innovation is so much more achievable.

So, what better place to join the ranks of world-changing innovators?

E.ON’s U.S. outpost is, naturally, also located in Palo Alto, following in those footsteps. Only this time it's the energy transition we're driving forward. What we call our Innovation Garage focuses on collaboration with climate tech and green energy start-ups, fuelling our ambitions to truly be the playmaker in the energy transformation.

As Thomas Birr (pictured) E.ON’s own Chief Strategy & Innovation Officer, says: “I can honestly say Silicon Valley has fascinated me long before my first visit. Probably my fascination was caused by all the success stories that were born here. As an innovation enthusiast, I believe that Silicon Valley can teach us a lot if we are willing to listen.”

Our Silicon Valley outpost is a melting pot for new ideas. By approaching energy transformation with a global mindset, energy leaders can motivate their teams and partners to set ambitious goals, work with others, and take risks in a safe environment. Working in Silicon Valley also gives energy firms access to the capital they need and proximity to an incredible talent pool which are all key components for a driving force for change.

E.ON’s Innovation Garage has become a hotbed of our collaborative efforts, with start-ups at the heart. Together, we constantly tinker with new ideas to make them workable and scalable for a sustainable future – fine-tuning the mechanics of each idea, testing each initiative and considering their implications for the energy industry as a whole.

Of course, it’s not just about the ideas, even the most innovative start-ups struggle to get their ideas off the ground, caught in the “catch-22” of needing funding to build a platform from which to attract investment. E.ON has addressed that by creating a venture capital fund dedicated solely to sustainable energy innovators, effectively supercharging their transformational efforts.

Future Energy Ventures (FEV) manages a fund valued at 110 million euros and has an expansive portfolio of start-ups focusing on all aspects of the energy transition, from energy-efficient heating technology to new battery solutions to AI. 

By providing funding, testing space, and connections to other partners across a range of technological fields, E.ON is developing a culture of collaboration and innovation while providing unique opportunities for start-ups. 

We have the opportunity to explore technology across a range of industries and apply those solutions to the energy business – with the goal of driving the energy transition towards a sustainable future.