Sax Power from Erbach near Ulm has won the state prize for innovation, known as the Rudolf Eberle Prize. A new type of energy accumulator convinced the jury.
Lei Shen is certain: “We urgently need 30 more people next year.” In the name of the energy transition and climate protection, her company Sax Power won first place among more than 80 candidates for the Dr. Rudolf Eberle Award – with a digitally controlled battery. This time there were 30 fewer candidates running for the Baden-Württemberg innovation prize than in 2021. At the time, a peak of 110 nominations was reached. The prize, worth 50,000 euros, is meant to commemorate former Baden-Württemberg economics minister Rudolf Eberle and was awarded this year for the 38th time.
“Without innovative strength, especially in medium-sized companies, the diverse challenges of our time can hardly be overcome,” said Baden-Württemberg Minister of Economy Nicole Hoffmeister-Kraut at the award ceremony. Last year the focus was on the miniaturization of tools, for example, this year energy management scored points.
The Sax Power company from Erbach near Ulm not only took first place, but its drum kit was also awarded with prize money of 25,000 euros. Sax Power, founded in 2019 by CEO Lei Shen and her husband, presented a new type of battery to the judging panel: “Our battery is smaller, lighter and more compact than conventional batteries,” says Shen of the square, wide 50 cm and Memoria 30 cm high.
No inverter
But that’s not all: “Doing without an inverter also makes the battery cheaper,” says Shen of the innovation. The trick of the invention is the omission of this device, which converts direct current into alternating current in conventional batteries. Also, because digital control and a special circuit are involved, memory can be constructed a little differently than with conventional batteries.
First deliveries for photovoltaic operators
The first customers of the company, which was founded in Ulm, are private individuals who want to store electricity from their own photovoltaic system or electricians who install such systems. But since there was no space for production in the Ulm Science Park, the company moved to Erbach, first in containers. Meanwhile, Sax Power has erected a new building on the industrial estate for the current 30 employees. And a lot of money has been raised too, from German, US and Chinese investors. There was also funding from the state of Baden-Württemberg’s pre-seed start-up program.
The storage for private individuals has 5.2 kilowatt hours – if you want more, you can also connect several storages in series. Next year, Sax Power wants to offer even larger batteries with up to 100 kilowatt hours, for electricity from large photovoltaic systems, for example from farmers and commercial enterprises.
Automakers are interested
The company is also in talks with well-known car manufacturers. These show interest, among other things, because the space requirements and weight are lower than usual. But Shen knows another advantage: “When the engine is off, the batteries drop below 16 volts in 0.2 millisecond.” There is almost no fire risk.” delivered to automakers: “It takes at least five years to develop such a battery,” says Shen.
Easy to recycle batteries
The life of Erbach’s invention is said to be 20 to 30 percent longer than conventional batteries. But even if memory has given up on the ghost, apparently there are no major problems. “Memory is also easy to recycle because it contains no cobalt, manganese or nickel,” says Shen.
talent search
Since the company has mainly researched and sold only a few so far, the turnover is only around one million euros. But now things are destined to increase rapidly: “Next year we want to make ten million in turnover”, according to the plans of the managing director. With twice as many employees as at the moment: “Our biggest problem is finding enough talented people,” reports Shen.
From Shanghai to Erbach
At first it had nothing to do with batteries. She came to Germany from Shanghai and studied civil engineering in Darmstadt, because her boyfriend also went to Darmstadt. You then worked for 20 years at the Ehingen plant of the construction machinery manufacturer Liebherr. Shen then came into contact with battery technology through scientists at the University of Ulm. She couldn’t let it go. At present, the risk of establishing the company is worth it.
The other winners of the Innovation Award
water 3.0
The Karlsruhe company, founded in 2020 by managing director Katrin Schuhen, together with its partner abcr, received 25,000 euros for a special analysis method for determining wastewater pollution with microplastics and micropollutants. These can be identified with colored markers and then grouped together and skimmed off.
Following
The Constance company, founded by Manuel Stein in 2021, received 10,000 euros. This has developed a new type of software for movement analysis, for example in sports. For example, location data for soccer can be obtained from simple cell phone recordings.
Olmatic
Olmatic from Freudenstadt received the prize of 7,500 euros from the medium-sized investment company for an energy management system. The founders and managing directors are the three Olma brothers.
