Paris, France, 19 January 2022
EIT InnoEnergy, the world’s leading innovation engine for sustainable energy, and GROUPE IDEC announce that GROUPE IDEC is taking a stake in EIT InnoEnergy.
This commitment illustrates GROUPE IDEC’s ambition to place energy transition and sustainability at the heart of its real estate developments. It will enable GROUPE IDEC to gain access to ground-breaking innovations and propose real estate projects focussing on the energies of the future and energy efficiency by using EIT InnoEnergy’s vast ecosystem consisting of more than 300 pioneering start-ups throughout Europe. Photovoltaic (PV) solar energy, rooftop wind power, geothermal energy, hydrogen and all the levers making it possible to aim for low-carbon buildings constitute central elements in GROUPE IDEC’s development strategy. In the framework of this strategic partnership and of a broader commitment to the construction of a sustainable future, GROUPE IDEC and EIT InnoEnergy will also analyse the viability of a “European Energy Campus”, which will make it possible to train and provide support for managers in the area of energy.
“The stake that GROUPE IDEC is taking in EIT InnoEnergy is in line with our desire to develop, with this development being resolutely turned towards a more sustainable, social and societal approach to the projects we accomplish in collaboration with our customers,” explains Patrice LAFARGUE, President and founder of GROUPE IDEC. “This shareholding strengthens our already successful collaboration with EIT InnoEnergy with several significant projects completed to date, and with many more to come. This will also contribute to proposing ever-more innovative solutions to our customers and supporting the development of new real estate and technological projects and of innovative businesses.”
EIT InnoEnergy will count on the real estate assets managed, developed, designed and built by GROUPE IDEC and on nearly 1,000 hectares of land under its control in Europe, to support the deployment of start-ups regarding both the commercial aspects and the development of industrial capacity. GROUPE IDEC is already actively engaged with the portfolio of start-ups backed by EIT InnoEnergy: it is a shareholder and founding member of the Grenoble start-up Verkor which aims to build Europe’s biggest battery gigafactory. GROUPE IDEC is assisting Verkor with the turnkey design and construction of the Verkor Innovation Center, the first stages of which will be completed in the second half 2022. GROUPE IDEC has also put strategic partnerships in place with Atawey, a French supplier of hydrogen fuelling stations, and with Sylfen, a French supplier of integrated energy production and storage solutions for buildings. Both of these businesses are backed by EIT InnoEnergy.
Karine Vernier, President and CEO of EIT InnoEnergy France, adds: “With buildings that generate nearly 40% of annual CO2 emissions worldwide, the built-up environment has a key role to play in our ecological transition. GROUPE IDEC’s visionary outlook places it at the forefront of the energy transition in real estate and, together, we can have a real impact not only on the way real estate will become more efficient in energy terms, but also on the way land and facilities will be used to support the acceleration of sustainable energy technologies throughout Europe. By entering into our ecosystem of more than 500 partners, GROUPE IDEC has unrivalled access to energy and industrial players, and to research and academic institutions for de-risking the growth of its activity and accelerating the scaling up of our portfolio.”