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SDSN and Siemens Gamesa Announce E-Gora: The Energy Marketplace as the Winner of the ‘Universities for Goal 13’ Competition at ICSD 2023

By SDSN

At the 2023 International Conference for Sustainable Development (ICSD) held at Columbia University in New York alongside the UN General Assembly (UNGA), the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) and Siemens Gamesa announced the winning project, ‘E-Gora: The Energy Marketplace,’ of the second edition of Universities for Goal 13, a global competition promoting university talent in the fight against climate change.

On September 20, SDSN and Siemens Gamesa announced the winner of the ‘Universities for Goal 13’ award, a competition promoting university talent in the fight against climate change through disruptive solutions. The winning project, "E-Gora: The Energy Marketplace,” was created by students at Case Western Reserve University in the USA.


E-Gora: The Energy Marketplace, developed by a team at Case Western University, seeks to provide a user-friendly platform that allows users to find information quickly and easily about renewable energy projects near them that they can participate in. The project will help to bridge the gap between the different players in the energy marketplace: bringing consumers, investors, developers, installation companies, financial institutions, lawyers, and other necessary parties together.


The winning project was announced during the 11th Annual International Conference on Sustainable Development (ICSD) in New York on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly. ICSD is the top academic international conference for discussing sustainable development issues with researchers and development practitioners from across the world including heads of state, UN officials, CEOs, economists, and university professors.


There to present the award were Jeffrey Sachs, President, SDSN; María Cortés Puch, Vice President for Networks, SDSN; and Maximilian Schnippering, Head of Sustainability, Siemens Gamesa. The winning solution was awarded $10,000 USD for further development and implementation.


Six universities from SDSN’s Network around the world participated in this second edition, including Tsinghua University, China jointly with the Chinese University of Hong Kong; the Nelson Mandela University, South Africa; University of Göttingen, Germany; the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; and Case Western Reserve University, United States.


From July through September 2023, thirteen teams of students from the participating universities, representing a range of disciplines, worked together to identify and propose an innovative and sustainable solution to a problem in their region. Five solutions were shortlisted:

  • E-Gora: The Energy Marketplace – This project, created by students at Case Western Reserve University in the USA, seeks to provide a user-friendly platform that allows users to find information quickly and easily about renewable energy projects near them that they can participate in. 
  • Reducing Carbon With Carbon – This project, created by students at Shanghai Jiaotong University and selected after a competition organized by Tsinghua University, addresses the issue of graphite waste from lithium batteries, which will represent 32% of all combustion emissions worldwide by 2030. 
  • HotBox – This project, developed by students from Nelson Mandela University in South Africa, provides a controlled environment for agricultural cultivation, while maximizing resource utilization and overcoming the limitations of traditional farming methods. 
  • grÜniversity – This project, developed by students from the University of Göttingen, proposes a 360-degree solution for university campuses promoting health, sustainability, biodiversity, and energy security. 
  • Amaze: Amazon Biomass Estimator – This project, developed by students at Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, has designed a web app for monitoring the world’s rainforests biomass with the support of AI. 


“For the young people participating in this competition, climate change is not a theory, let alone a hoax, nor is it a throw-away line in campaign speeches. It is a reality they have always known. For them, heat waves and flash floods are not a “new normal.” It’s the only normal they’ve ever known,” remarked Maximilian Schnippering, Head of Sustainability at Siemens Gamesa.


“All of us need to stay passionate about the green transitions we see in all industries. Use this passion and turn into action – and nothing will stop you.”


Next year, SDSN and Siemens Gamesa will return with the third edition of the ‘Universities for Goal 13 Competition’.