Recently Astana the vibrant capital of Kazakhstan, provided a fitting backdrop for an international clean tech startup contest called #NEWENERGY Global Startup Fest. This was supported by the Ministry of Energy of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The goal was to highlight global start ups with the power to change the world. During the event startups from 36 countries presented their innovation projects and product prototypes. An international panel of experts selected the Top 30 startups which will be featured in one of the Astana EXPO – 2017 pavilions.

Here’s a list of the Top 30 selected startups; Primus Power (Kazakhstan), Tevva Motors Ltd (Great Britain), TwingTec (Switzerland), Lerta (Poland), Ecoisme (Ukraine), RF-SENS (Turkey), GreenQ (Israel), ezzingSolar (Spain), WiseSoil (Russian Federation), EnergySolaris (Moldova), Lightwork (Australia), Volta (USA), HomeBiogas (Israel), DAJIE (Great Britain), SMASH SOLAR INC (USA), Breeze (Germany), Unleash the light (Israel), REConnect Energy Solutions Pvt. Ltd. (India), Tespack (Finland), Kelda Technology (Great Britain), HST Solar (USA), Eco Wave Power (Israel), Pro-Drone (Portugal), Inficold Inc. (USA), Tevatronic (Israel), Farm Dog (Israel), Sympower (the Netherlands), Promethean Energy Pvt. Ltd. (India), Poduhvat Technologies (Serbia), MClimate (Bolgaria).

Oren Simanian, founder of StarTau, Entrepreneurship Center at Tel Aviv University and one of the members of the #NEWENERGY expert panel said that, “the key criteria for project selection was: competitive advantage, innovativeness and market potential of the startups.”

#NEWENERGY received 780 applications from companies which represent five continents and over 55 countries. More than half of the applications came from startups in renewable and alternative energy sources (52%), as well as smart cities and sustainable infrastructure (18%), energy and the environment (8%), new sources of energy (6%), water management (6%) and others.