Company selling free sunlight receives award

The Ghent-based starter company EcoNation, which sells hi-tech energy-saving “LightCatcher” bulbs, was named New Energy Pioneer during an annual event organized by Bloomberg New Energy Finance last night. EcoNation develops light domes which are fitted onto a flat roof. Driven by light sensors, these intelligent mirrors turn towards the sun as it moves and reflect the light inwards to optimize lighting and provide a cheaper alternative to fluorescent lighting in large production halls. Indoors the bottom of these light domes look like a normal fluorescent fitting. Thanks to the electronics of the dome, the dome provides a constant light intensity and automatically switches on light bulbs once it turns dark outside. EcoNation have so far fitted LightCatchers on the roof of the Scania distribution centre and a number of Quick and Lidl stores.
“We actually charge for free daylight,” says the 30-year-old co-founder and CEO Maarten Michielssens. Last year the concern fitted an estimated 1 600 domes and the demand continues to increase. By using mirrors these intelligent domes transfer more sunlight than traditional domes. Moreover the light is more concentrated and solar heat controlled. “Customers pay for their investment with a much lower lighting bill.” EcoNation has developed a fund that pays for companies that are reluctant to invest themselves. “These customers do not have to invest any money and repay us via the saving on their energy bill.”
 
Their recognition by Bloomberg New Energy Finance comes in the wake of their nomination as Starter of the Year by Trends Gazellen, the organization that honours fast-growing companies each year. Walking away with the second prize during the Zayed Future Energy Prize for energy-saving technology in Abu Dhabi earlier this year earned them considerable exposure among international business leaders and politicians. In Belgium the company has already earned the support of Flemish minister-president Kris Peeters CD&V and prime minister Elio Di Rupo PS. As a former sports journalist, Michielssens made a dramatic career change and has achieved excellent success with EcoNation, which he set up in 2009 with Dimitri and Hans Dedecker, sons of the Ostend politician Jean-Marie Dedecker. The three have since parted ways, but others contributors to the success of the company and its affiliated partnerships include the directors of the board such as Vlerick professor Leo Goovaerts, internet entrepreneur Bart Becks and many other other heaveyweights.
 
The Bloomberg prize is in recognition of the company’s international profile in particular, with customers like Schipol airport and Swedish power stations like Ringhals gracing their list of foreign references. Moreover the company boasts its own subsidiary in Morocco run by the athlete Hassan Mourhit as well as an outfit in China which was established earlier this year to manage their commercialization on the local market. “We are not scared to be copied. Copycats are good for market credibility,” says Michielssens in anticipation of his plans to invest 500 000 euros in research and development in the next few years. After alluding to a targeted turnover of 1.6 million earlier, the company has refrained from divulging any figures for last year. “Our growth will be at least 300%,” says Michielssens.