Women’s Entrepreneurship Day: women leading the transformation of the energy sector
Nov 19, 2024
Committed
Innovation has become a must for building a more sustainable world and, with the horizon for climate neutrality set for 2050, the entrepreneurial world sees the ecological transition as an opportunity for the development of its business ideas.
In this context, we are starting a new cycle of interviews with entrepreneurs in the energy sector who, with their projects, contribute to making this world a more sustainable, efficient and fair place for all.
Today we spoke to Andrea Barber, co-founder and CEO of RatedPower. Considered by Forbes magazine as one of the “most creative Spanish women of 2020”, her start-up offers a software programme that automates the design of solar plants. For her, at times like these, it is vital that solutions are found that provide optimal and efficient responses to the problems faced by each sector.
With her interview today we also join in on Women’s Entrepreneurship Day, an event that is celebrated worldwide and aims to transmit the value of entrepreneurship to women.
Besides the economic support that is always important, winning this award has given us access to advice from a very powerful network of top level advisors and mentors who have added value to different aspects of the company (operations, management, finance, marketing, etc.). What’s more, the visibility that our company is receiving is huge for us.
I also think it is vitally important to find a support system from other women entrepreneurs, with whom we can find inspiration, share our day-to-day developments, ask for advice, and discuss the challenges we face as entrepreneurs.
This type of initiative promotes entrepreneurship in Spain and allows innovative ideas to gain momentum and be prioritised. These initiatives also encourage and accelerate entrepreneurship by connecting different start-ups and promoting an innovative breeding ground.
Periods of crisis like the one we are currently experiencing present obstacles, but also many opportunities for entrepreneurs. At times like these, it is vital that new ideas emerge, new solutions that provide optimal and efficient responses to the problems and barriers faced by each sector.
The energy transition will be one of the four main axes of the Spanish economy Recovery Plan that the Government is promoting to tackle the Covid-19 crisis. Likewise, the European Union and many other international economies consider the energy transition a key factor in overcoming this crisis.
In this sense, sustainability and the energy transition are key to economic growth and, indeed, must go hand in hand. To survive the crisis, companies will have to rethink their way of working, automate processes and take advantage of technology to become more efficient. This is an opportunity for all entrepreneurs who are developing disruptive projects that could be key in the transition to a greener economy. Hence the importance of technologies like ours, which will help energy companies to significantly reduce their costs.
On the other hand, I believe that the greatest impact of promoting the green economy is being more efficient and sustainable, not only in terms of the environment, but also in economic and social aspects. I also believe that companies must be responsible and have a key role to play in adopting a sustainable approach in our daily lives.
We help to promote the green economy through our corporate purpose: energy efficiency through process optimisation is RatedPower’s main objective, and the energy transition to a sustainable world is our ultimate goal. However, since our inception we have tried to go further. We promote good environmental practices from our social networks as well as among our employees.
If any woman is considering entrepreneurship, if it is something she is passionate about and is motivated by, I would certainly tell her to go for it, to not hesitate to ask for feedback on her business ideas from the people around her and her potential customers, to research the market well and read a lot about the industry and competitors. I would also encourage women to look for entrepreneurship and accelerator support programmes, which will be of real help in the initial phase, and provide them with tools and a very valuable support network.
I also think it is vitally important to find a support system from other women entrepreneurs, with whom we can find inspiration, share our day-to-day developments, ask for advice, and discuss the challenges we face as entrepreneurs. Now I have several similar networks and I think they’re essential.