Published: September 5, 2011

When the company Innoventum wanted to present their wind power station made of recycled material, they were given the cold shoulder by the City of Malmö on the grounds that they should know better and be back in touch when they ”had learnt some more”.

The innovation company Innoventum has a proven track record as an innovator and problem-solver with a firm foothold at four different universities. The delopment of the new wind power station has comprised 6,000 hours of research and design work by scientists under the direction of Roberto Crocetti, professor at the Lund Institute of Technology in the area of advaced wooden constructions. One of the advantages of using wood is that a wooden tower makes less noise and that wood is an environmentally-friendly choice of material. This is a technology that has turned out to function very well. Although one tower is already in operation and others are on the way, Malmö thus gave it the cold shoulder.

When Sigvald Harryson, the innovation researcher who founded Innoventum, invited the City of Malmö to a presentation of innovations in the area of wind power stations, his invitation was turned down – and in a rather brusque way, too. Among other things the responsible official in Malmö wrote ”You won’t be allowed to set up a post windmill … especially not in the company of our politicians” and ”Your wooden tower looks positively dangerous, which indicates that at Innoventum you don’t even understand that a symmetric construction is required. Get back in touch when you have learnt more”.

Innovation isn’t always what you think.

Sigvald Harryson comments on what happened as follows:

”It’s insulting that our competence was so fundamentally rejected”.

The Malmö official later apologized to Sigvald Harryson and Innoventum.

 

Source: Sydsvenska Dagbladet

Author: Arne Berge