Swedish startup seeks funding for next-gen mass transportation

Sweden’s NowaitTransit thinks it has the answer to next-generation mass transportation, and says it could be powered entirely by solar.

Chairman Gert Andersson told the Cleantech Group his company is seeking €7 million ($9.8 million) to take its finalized futuristic design, which would be the world’s first zero emissions mass transportation system, to production. The company, founded in 2004, has developed an above-ground, driverless system where the vehicles continuously operate on a closed loop. There’s no waiting at the station to catch the next car.

“It’s a chain of vehicles connected together,” Andersson said. “The principal is that at the station where the vehicles are slowed down, this is done through turning the vehicles 90 degrees. They turn sideways through the station. Passengers enter at one end of the compartment, and passengers exit at the other end. They never meet. It’s a continuous flow.”

The technology, simulated in sophisticated computer systems, has a spacious transport capacity of 80,000 people per hour per direction, equal to Hong Kong’s subway capacity. The system, best suited for cities with at least one million people, would run 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

“It’s like a walkway in the airport,” he said. “It runs all the time.”

The system has also been designed to be serviced and maintained, while continuously moving.

The system’s power consumption is extremely low, Andersson said, using about 5 watt hours per seat kilometer, compared to Korea’s transit system that uses 100 watt hours per seat kilometer. Energy is preserved by an uphill slope at the station entrance and a downhill slope at the station’s exit. This means no energy is lost due to mechanical braking. The result is that total energy consumed is less than 20 percent compared to a conventional subway system.

“This low energy consumption means that even solar power becomes feasible as the prime power source, and therefore, it’s feasible to run this on solar cells,” he said.

The New York’s Metropolitan Transit Authority announced plans for a range of cleantech initiatives to its system, including solar and wind power, green roofs, water management and regenerative braking (see New York transit going green).

Also using regenerative braking is the Delhi Metro Rail, which has prevented 90,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide from being emitted with the system. The railway's system cuts back on energy use by about 30 percent by powering trains with energy harnessed while braking (see Delhi Metro earns carbon credits for regenerative braking system).

Andersson said his company has raised €600,000 for its R&D from partner Botnia Production and a Taiwanese investor, as well as his own personal funds for a total of €1 million. Botnia Production, originally a train manufacturer, would likely be the manufacturer of the new system. NowaitTransit expects to be profitable in 2011, with an exit in 2014.

NowaitTransit has received €300,000 in grants and support from the Swedish government agencies including the Swedish railway administration and state authority Vinnova (Swedish Governmental Agency for Innovation Systems). Technical universities including the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm have also backed the company’s system.

The company’s next steps are to raise the additional €7 million in order to access a €4 million government subsidy it has already secured. The funds are to be used to build a verification line in Sweden to test the technology and prove it works. The results of the test are expected to greenlight NowaitTransit’s first commercial contract in Busan, Korea, at a value of €150 million.

The company initiated pre-marketing of its technology in South Korea, China and Middle East. The system’s main competition comes from subway construction builders.

NowaitTransit is one of 20 potential new investment opportunities the Cleantech Group added to its dealflow database this week, available exclusively to members of the Cleantech Network. Members can click here to search the dealflow database.

Interested in investing in cleantech companies? Here's an international company from the Cleantech Group's dealflow database also looking for funding:

• Singapore’s Eminent Fund is seeking $35 million in capital for unspecified purposes. The company’s technology transforms 100 percent of household, industrial and toxic waste into new, environmentally friendly raw materials. The technology is a cold mineralization process where waste is torn apart and molecules are encapsulated in the resultant silicate structure.

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