Open innovation

Open to finding ideas that will help us to grow

We have adopted an open innovation model that makes it possible to create the best solutions, products and services with a view to transforming the current energy model.

Aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals

Sustainable development goals

SDG 9: Industry, innovation and infrastructure

SDG 11: Sustainable cities and communities

Accessible version

Open innovation is a new model used by companies in their relations with external players (universities, start-ups, research centres, other companies in the same or a different sector, etc.) that promotes collaboration and idea sharing.

At Endesa we have adopted this open model to find quality ideas that will help us to grow. Our purpose when entering this new culture is to develop innovative solutions that are capable of transforming the current energy model.

Open Innovability, the digital door open to sustainable innovation

Open Innovability is the digital platform on which we foster a culture of innovation inside and outside the Enel Group. By using it, employees, start-ups, independent innovators, universities, research centres, companies, NGOs and associations can propose innovative and sustainable ideas or projects that seek to respond to different energy-related challenges.

Open Innovability has been used to launch a multitude of challenges related to topics as varied as renewable installations, employee well-being, advanced detection of forest fires in power plants and the maximisation of energy production. These challenges encompass all the needs of Sustainability, Environment, Generation, Distribution and both residential and corporate customers.

Workshop at Enel Madrid Innovation Hub

Endesa and entrepreneurs: attracting external talent

We are looking to promote communication and collaboration with start-ups and entrepreneurs given their capacity when it comes to disruptive innovation, their use of technology and, most importantly, their agility to develop and bring products and services to market in the shortest possible turnaround time.

Endesa, as part of the Enel Group, is open to the global innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem through 10 collaborative areas, the Enel Innovation Hubs, and 22 laboratories for start-ups. The Enel Innovation Hubs are located in significant centres of entrepreneurship and in the Group's strategic markets around the world: Brazil, Chile, Spain, Israel, Italy, Russia and the United States.

Madrid is the headquarters of the Enel Innovation Hub Europe, located in TheCube Madrid, a space created by and for entrepreneurs with a focus on the Internet of Things, Data Science and Artificial Intelligence, where European start-ups are prospected and the relationship with the continent's main innovation ecosystems is developed for the entire Group.

In November 2022, the Enel Innovation Hub Europe also opened its headquarters in Barcelona, whose main objective is to boost and strengthen relations and collaboration opportunities with the innovation ecosystem, start-ups and innovative SMEs in Catalonia.

In this regard, there should be special mention for the sponsorship for the tenth consecutive year of "South Summit", the largest display of innovation and entrepreneurship in southern Europe. For the 2022 edition there were 15,400 participants from more than 120 countries, and all the content was also available in virtual format to provide better dissemination and a greater impact.

Through the hubs we have already contacted 11,000 start-ups, which has enabled us to undertake more than 450 collaborations and promote more than 110 projects as far as the commercial phase. For more information, go the website: startup.enel.com.

The culture of innovation: Idea Hub

To promote the creation of a culture of innovation among our employees as a key change factor, we created Enel Idea Hub Spain, a unit dedicated to promoting the use of creative methodologies, entrepreneurship projects and training programmes in specific innovative tools.

Programmes:

Make It Happen

Intra-entrepreneurship programme that gives Endesa employees the opportunity to become entrepreneurs within the company.

Challenge Driven Sessions

Workshops on the application of innovative methodologies to searching for innovative solutions to the company's challenges. In 2019, 34 sessions were held in which 14 challenges were addressed, involving more than 400 employees.