Energy and power shape the world we live in.
Without energy, society wouldn’t thrive as it does today. Whether it’s electrical, chemical, solar, or nuclear energy, it powers everything around us — from our homes to transport and communication systems.
As part of DIANA’s programme, we invited innovators to propose solutions to address our ‘Energy & Power’ challenge area. These technologies focus on enhancing energy and power resilience — helping us find innovative ways of meeting the world’s energy demands.
To learn more about how these start-ups are tackling this challenge, we spoke to two of our 14 innovators who are working to transform the way we generate, use and store energy and power.
Game-changing materials for energy storage
Atomiver is a spin-out of Palacký University Olomouc in the Czech Republic, where Dr Veronika Šedajová, Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder at Atomiver, completed her PhD.
Her Master’s and PhD had focused on studying the properties of a material known as nitrogen-doped graphene — dubbed SC-GN3 — which proved to be a promising electrode material for use in supercapacitors. After publishing papers on the subject and filing patents for the material, Šedajová with her PhD co-supervisor, Prof. Michal Otyepka, started thinking about putting together a team to establish a company that could manufacture this electrode material for use in high-energy density supercapacitors.
Atomiver CEO Mr. Andrew Hladký (left) and CTO Dr Veronika Šedajová (right) at DIANA’s Defence and Security Days in Krakow.
“A supercapacitor is similar to a battery — but it stores and releases energy in a different way. Also, compared to a battery, it is almost immortal,” explained Šedajová.
While batteries use chemical reactions to store and release energy, supercapacitors rely on electrostatic separation of charges, forming an electric double layer, where the energy is stored. Supercapacitors also have higher power throughput, so they can charge and discharge much faster than batteries.
“Think of a bucket and a water bottle filled with water. The supercapacitor is like the bucket — if you turn it upside down, all the energy comes out at once. But the battery is like a bottle — if you turn it upside down, it has a very narrow bottle neck, so it takes much longer for all the water to come out.
“This is why we have batteries in our phones — because we need them to last longer. Meanwhile, supercapacitors are best suited for situations where you need a really big burst of power and energy — for example, to launch a satellite or to open an aircraft door,” said Šedajová.
Supercapacitor prototypes in two form factors, the smaller of which will be used in nanosatellites. Currently, Atomiver is on the path to manufacture a first batch of the small prototypes with their novel active material for validation and certification.
Atomiver’s patented graphene-based material is particularly innovative and suited for use in supercapacitors because it has a really high density and therefore can store a lot of energy in a smaller volume.
“The higher density of our material means it can be used to create very small but powerful supercapacitors — saving space while retaining the same amount of power and energy, and with lower costs and environmental impact,” said Šedajová.
This advantage is key when manufacturing and powering flying devices like satellites, drones, or even space rockets, which must be designed to minimise weight while maintaining efficiency to save on costs.
“Because supercapacitors can store more power and energy than regular capacitors and batteries, they also play a role in various industries as an emergency power back-up source, for example. Therefore, our material can be used by supercapacitor manufacturers in all sorts of industries — covering both civilian and defence applications. This makes our innovation very versatile and an ideal fit for the dual-use concept.”
Today, Atomiver is less than a year old, but the team have already demonstrated the potential of their technology in laboratory tests, where supercapacitors using this material achieved higher performances than existing technologies used for fast energy storage, making them suitable as a complementary technology to rechargeable lithium-ion batteries.
Currently, thanks to the DIANA programme, the team of four are in planning stages for the development of their next prototype.
“Being selected to be part of DIANA has been a huge privilege, and it really shows. Since joining the programme, we’ve been able to benefit from a range of contacts and mentors that we didn’t have access to before. We’re still talking to some of the contacts that that we met at DIANA’s Defence and Security Days in Krakow, including investors and test centres.
“The learning component has also been invaluable. As a scientist, when I compare myself and what I knew about running and scaling a business before last Christmas, to what I know now after being part of the programme for the last four months, there’s a clear difference.”
Laser-powered energy transmission
ORiS — which stands for Orbital Recharge in Space — is another start-up making waves in the field of energy and power, both on Earth and in space.
The company is developing energy transmission systems using high-power and high-precision laser technology.
Lasers are able to produce powerful, focused beams of light — concentrating energy and directing it where it is needed, without relying on power cables and wires for transmission.
The team at ORiS is leveraging laser technology to wirelessly transmit energy in different ways. One of their main applications of this technology is in space, where they aim to transmit energy from an orbiting charging system — essentially a group of satellites whose purpose is to collect solar energy — to other satellites, recharging them.
“Our technology features an ‘optical combiner’, which combines multiple laser beams at the kilowatt level — so very high-power levels. Using this, we can target and adjust the direction and size of the laser, allowing for more precise energy transmission over long distances of up to thousands of kilometres,” explained Anna Mauro, Co-Founder of ORiS.
Render of ORiS' technology.With a background in aerospace engineering, Mauro became passionate about harnessing the potential of high-power fibre lasers in space while she pursued a PhD at the Polytechnic University of Turin in Italy.
“It was while I was completing my Master’s that I met the other Co-Founders, and we started our journey with ORiS. It was then that I also decided to start my PhD. My research focused on the design and application of high-power fibre lasers in different space environments.
ORiS’ Founders, from left to right: Domenico Edoardo Sfasciamuro, Andrea Villa, Anna Mauro, Francesco Lopez.
“In early 2024, we began entering challenges and competitions for student teams at our University, which really helped us develop and refine our idea. We even helped our University submit a project in response to a call for proposals from the Italian Space Agency, which we won together with other SMEs and research institutes from the Turin area,” she said.
Their proposal to the Italian Space Agency outlined another space application for ORiS’ technology: transferring energy from the orbit of the moon to the moon’s surface.
“The lunar environment is very different from the Earth’s — there is less solar power and therefore worse illumination, since day and night cycles are much longer. Storing enough energy for the night is therefore really challenging,” explained Mauro.
By enabling wireless energy transmission, ORiS’ technology could solve this problem — avoiding the need for large energy storage systems on the moon by supplying power on demand.
As well as recharging satellites and generating power on the moon, their laser technology could also have a role to play in cleaning the junkyard of space debris orbiting in space. Space debris left behind by humans moves at high speeds and is a threat to space missions — which is why we need solutions like ORiS’ laser technology, which can target and remove the debris.
“With the help of DIANA and its mentors and network we’re now also exploring how to bring our technology from space to Earth — where it can be used to recharge drones in flight, for example. These drones may be used for surveillance or environmental monitoring, and thanks to our technology, they could be charged without having to land each time,” said Mauro.
Today, the team are in the process of designing their second prototype and identifying the most suitable test centres to trial it.
“Testing this prototype is a challenge because of the high-power levels involved. Working with the test centres part of the DIANA network, we are looking for a solution that allows us to test our prototype over longer distances and in open space, so that we can demonstrate and validate our technology in the most relevant environment possible,” said Mauro.
Towards a cleaner and resilient energy future
As part of DIANA’s programme, innovators like Atomiver and ORiS are driving dual-use innovation for resilient and reliable energy and power, whether at home or in the most remote of environments. By leveraging their innovative technologies and adapting them for different purposes and applications, they are helping us accelerate the transition to a cleaner, more efficient and resilient energy future.
To find out more about all the companies in DIANA’s Energy & Power challenge, please visit: https://www.diana.nato.int/about-diana/2025-cohort-of-companies.html