AssetCool has been announced as the winner at the ESB-hosted Grand Finale of this year's Free Electrons programme. In a world-first, the start-up developed a power line coating robotic technology that permits the direct application of its capacity enhancing coating to transmission lines.

The Grand Finale event, hosted live by ESB, marked the final stage of this year's Free Electrons programme where start-ups delivered a pitch presentation to some of the world's leading utilities. This culminated with an Open Day at Smock Alley Theatre in Dublin on Thursday, 16th October where the start-ups were given the chance to showcase their innovative energy solutions.

AssetCool are the ninth overall winner of the global accelerator programme that supports the brightest innovators who are working to transform the energy market.

Commenting on ESB's support for the Free Electrons programme, Marguerite Sayers, Deputy Chief Executive, ESB, said: "As a founding member of Free Electrons, we were so proud to host some of the world's leading energy start-ups in Dublin. At ESB, we cannot deliver our goal of Net Zero carbon emissions by 2040 alone, so the ideas presented throughout the week were so important as innovation is at the core of what we do at ESB.

"Our hosting of the Grand Finale event further demonstrates our commitment to work with our partners to deliver on this purpose. The high-quality pipeline of innovation, new technologies and learnings that were on display throughout this year's programme will help advance clean energy initiatives around the world. We congratulate AssetCool on winning this year's programme and to all the start-ups that took part."

Commenting on their win, Niall Coogan, Co-Founder & CEO, at AssetCool, said: "We are incredibly proud to win this year's Free Electrons programme. It is an outstanding achievement considering the quality of the other finalists and the fact there were 877 applicants at the beginning. The Grand Finale event hosted by ESB in Dublin has been a great way to end this year's competition. We would like to thank all of the start-ups we have shared this experience with and are now looking forward to continuing to work closely with partner utilities to bring our ideas to life that we hope will help power a more sustainable world."

Also announced during the event was the winner of the Shin Akimoto Award which was presented to Karina Yamamoto from Gridbrid - the award recognises individuals who drive innovation by inspiring, supporting, and empowering others to cultivate and pursue new ideas.

To date, the Free Electrons Programme has attracted 6,350 start-up applications from 119 countries around the globe. Registration for the 2026 edition is now open at https://freeelectrons.org

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