Shell brings bright energy ideas to life as Make the Future London reaches its finale

The first Make the Future London festival, featuring Shell Eco-marathon Europe, on July 3 celebrated some of the brightest and most exciting innovations helping to tackle the global energy challenge. The four-day event at London’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park hosted more than 30,000 guests of all ages, along with sporting legends Pelé and Kimi Räikkönen, Shell said it its news release.  

Make the Future London, which ran from 30 June and finished today, shone a light on the innovations of award-winning entrepreneurs from Shell’s enterprise development programmes.

They included Pavegen, which transforms kinetic energy from people’s footsteps into electricity, along with bio-bean, which uses waste coffee grounds as a sustainable fuel source. GravityLight showed how a simple weight and pulley system produces light for communities in need of access to clean and affordable power, and Capture Mobility revealed how it was developing wind turbines to transform air from passing cars into electricity.

Football icon Pelé hosted a virtual penalty shoot-out between youth teams in Lagos, Nigeria, and London. Each team jumped on Pavegen’s kinetic tiles to rack up playing time, which they used to score as many penalty points as possible. Pelé commented: “Having helped launch the first kinetic pitch in Rio, I’m so excited to be here again testing out this new energy challenge at Make the Future London.”

Tom Robinson, the entrepreneur behind Adaptavate, a company that produces a biodegradable alternative to plasterboard to enhance sustainable housing, was the focus of the festival’s biggest brainstorm, known as the Shell #makethefuture Accelerator. He said: “By bringing together some of the minds at events like this, we can work together to make great ideas a reality in communities across the world.”

F1 superstar Kimi Räikkönen praised the “amazing, complex work” achieved by young students taking part in Shell Eco-marathon Europe, which has been running for over 30 years.

The festival marked the first time the competition took place in London.

More than 200 student teams from 29 countries around the world arrived at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park after spending the last 12 months designing, building and testing their energy-efficient vehicles to compete on a specially-built 2.2km urban track to see whose vehicle could travel furthest on the least amount of fuel.  

Young engineers competed in two main categories – one for Prototype vehicles and the other for UrbanConcept cars.

Winners Microjoule-La Joliverie, from France broke the CNG (Compressed Natural Gas) record by travelling 2,606.4 km using the equivalent of just one litre of fuel in the Prototype category. Also achieving success was Lycee Louis Delage, from France who travelled a distance of 445.7km using the equivalent of a litre of fuel in their gasoline powered UrbanConcept car.   

The Make the Future London festival saw the most significant development of Shell Eco-marathon since its inception, with the introduction of the Drivers’ World Championship - a head-to-head race against the 2016 UrbanConcept winners from North America, Asia and Europe to find the quickest and most energy-efficient driver.

The winning team of the Drivers’ World Championship was Universitas Pendidikan from Indonesia. The team has been awarded a week’s training with Scuderia Ferrari in Maranello, Italy. They will meet the Formula 1 team and receive coaching on how they can improve their technology for next year’s Shell Eco-marathon.

Norman Koch, Global Technical Director for Shell Eco-marathon said: “The 2016 track has been particularly challenging for all teams and we have seen an incredibly high standard of performance, as well as the determination and team spirit of champions.”

Shell UK Chairman Erik Bonino added: “It’s been an honour to host Make the Future London, featuring Shell Eco-marathon Europe in the UK for the first time. Showcasing some of the brightest energy ideas and supporting entrepreneurship is an essential part of the journey to a low-carbon future. Shell is committed to inspiring and supporting the next generation of entrepreneurs as we tackle the world’s energy challenges.”

Make the Future London is a festival of ideas and innovation that supports bright energy ideas and provides a platform for innovation, collaboration and conversation about the global energy challenge.

The four-day event took place at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London from June 30 to July 3.

Shell Eco-marathon is a unique, global competition that challenges students to push the boundaries of energy efficiency on the road. There are three Shell Eco-marathon competitions held throughout the year in Asia, America and Europe. The competition provides an arena for students to test vehicles they designed and build themselves. It aims to inspire young people to become scientists and engineers of the future. Make the Future London featured six interactive zones.