Technological innovation in renewable energies and energy efficiency is key not only to promote climate action but also to promote economic reactivation. In coordination with the State of Querétaro and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH through the Project Enhancing the Coherence of Climate and Energy Policies in Mexico  (CONECC), the objective of the workshop was to lay the foundations for the preparation of the first call for projects at the Hub, through the identification of challenges and specific technological challenges of the state energy sector (renewable energy and energy efficiency), and the definition of criteria to choose the projects of innovation that will be chosen to access the services of the Hub.

The workshop lasted two days and was attended by 17 people from different key sectors: government, academia, companies, startups, and specialists in the field, which together are part of the triple helix of technological innovation.

Summary of the first and second day of the workshop

On the first day of the workshop, Germán Borja, from the Ministry of Sustainable Development of the State of Querétaro (SEDESU) mentioned that “the main goal of the workshop was to align our ideals and be able to collaborate together” at the Hub. Under this premise, the challenges and possibilities of the energy sector of Querétaro were identified, taking into account the difficulties that, in the context of economic recovery post-COVID-19, the local innovation ecosystem has presented. Part of the work on the first day was to map the actors to analyze the socio-environmental system and the possibilities of the projects in the state energy context. The challenges and potential solutions for the first call for projects were also defined. The participants discussed and defined a strategic and shared vision for the future of the Hub:

“The state of Querétaro promotes synergy among stakeholders, through technological development in digitalization and smart grids that allow sustainable socio-economic development to guarantee the safety and efficiency of clean energy. The Hub is a benchmark for progress, certainty, and profitability in clean energy for the State of Querétaro.”

On the second day of the workshop, the challenges posed by the actors were reviewed, in order to align them with the Hub’s objectives and find innovative solutions based on new technologies such as smart grids, and energy efficiency, among others. Additionally, the group of participants co-designed, through a participatory exercise, a set of criteria to assess innovation projects within the framework of the Hub’s first call. A very relevant agreement was that the selected projects seek to incorporate a strong component of social and environmental adoption in the development of the technologies promoted by the Hub.

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As next steps, the Working Group will take into account the results of this dialogue to discuss and prepare a call for proposals for the Querétaro Hub in the weeks to come, focused on proposals for innovative projects with a degree of medium technological maturity and that strengthen the resilience capacity of SMEs and startups in Querétaro in the face of the COVID pandemic. More information coming soon!