Edmonton firm recognized for developing generator
Rechargeable battery-powered system can be used in many settings, including campgrounds
An Edmonton-based startup tech company has won a prestigious national award for developing a rechargeable battery-powered generator with the unique ability to stack for greater output.
Connie Stacey, chief executive officer and founder of Growing Greener Innovations, received the product innovation award from the CANIE Digital Awards Tour during a virtual ceremony on Thursday. The awards tour recognizes innovation and entrepreneurship across Canada.
Stacey, who incorporated her company in 2014, said she was happy to receive the recognition.
“It’s very exciting to be nominated and, in fact, to have won,” she said. “It was a long time before we started to get any recognition for our invention and our innovation with our products. In the last little while, we started to get a lot more interest. It is still feeling like a bit of a surprise.”
What makes Stacey’s power system unique is the way the batteries can swap out or connect to each other. Stacey describes it as being similar to how LEGO bricks work.
How the battery recharges is also unique, as it can be hooked up in a number of ways, including connecting to solar panels, outlets, or a stationary bike.
The generators range in size from the size of a book to some being as big as a car battery. One of the generators available for sale is about the size of a toaster and can produce between 110 to 120 volts at 60 hertz or 220-250 volts at 50 hertz, depending on the model. Other versions of the generator can produce different levels of power.
Stacey said she was inspired to create the system in 2013 because of how noisy diesel generators are.
“(When) my twin boys were about three months old, I was walking them and they were asleep in the stroller and I passed a house being built and they were running a diesel generator,” she said. “I managed to get by (without waking them) but it really got me thinking on why we use combustion engines. They’re so loud… expensive and horrible for the environment.”
Stacey said the power system can be used in many settings including campgrounds and industrial sites.
She said the biggest cost associated with a battery system is the installation, which her product avoids with its patented ability to plug-in easily.
“Typically, (installation is) two-thirds of the overall cost of the system and that’s because everything has to be installed by an electrician at a rather high rate,” she said.
“Of course, everything is engineered for every unique system. In our case, what we did is make our system semiintelligent itself, so that essentially, you could dynamically create systems or do it with non-technical staff. It lowers the overall cost of installed systems dramatically.”
Growing Greener Innovations employs fewer than 10 people but Stacey said she hopes to continue to grow her company.
The CANIE Awards were created in 2019 following the merger of the Startup Canada Awards program and the Ernest C. Manning Innovations Awards. The inaugural 2020 awards tour is the flagship program of the Innovators and Entrepreneurs Foundation.