Bill Gates awarded TROPICAL S.A. as one of Greece's most innovative companies during an event organised by Microsoft & SEV (Hellenic Federation of Enterprises) - «INNOVATION AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN THE TODAY'S WORLD»

Mr. Bill Gates, Chairman of Microsoft, visited Greece on the 28th of January 2008 and did the inauguration of Microsoft’s Innovation Center together with the Greek Prime Minister, Mr. K. Karamanlis and the Minister of Economics, Mr G. Alogoskoufi which is located at Vas. Sofias Avenue.

Afterwards, Mr Bill Gates went to Athens Concert Hall and he was the keynote speaker at the event “Innovation and Entrepreneurship in the Today’s World” which was organized by SEV & Microsoft where participation surpassed all expectations and Greek politicians as well as entrepreneurs responded warmly.

TROPICAL S.A. participated on this event, in which Mr. Bill Gates together with SEV’s President, Mr. D. Daskalopoulo, awarded an honorary recognition to Tropical S.A. for its innovative products. During this event, a lot of innovative and ecological products that are being manufactured by Tropical S.A. have been presented on a video called “Greece Can” and highlighted examples and best practices of entrepreneurial and technological innovation that have been developed in our country and can serve as models for the entrepreneurial sector such as the Hydrogen Fuel Cell CityCar but also the full range of ecological (zero emissions) Hydrogen Fuel Cell Power Generators for home as well as industrial applications with power up to 200kW.

The President of Tropical S.A. noted that the 3rd Industrial Revolution will be for the “water” and more specifically for “Hydrogen” which will be the fuel of the future thus providing electric energy & heating to our homes and power to our vehicles. Since today, Tropical S.A., has been developed more than 20 innovative and ecological products, most of them through research programs, such as hydrogen electrolysers, fuel cell power generators and Fuel Cell powered vehicles & motor yachts. All these products have something in common: No Pollutants – Zero Emissions – Friendly to the Environment

European Union is actively supporting Hydrogen as an energy carrier and in order for Hydrogen Technologies to commercialize & move some steps forward, initiated the Joint Technology Initiative (JTI) - European Hydrogen & Fuel Cell Platform. This platform is constituted from 50 Industry partners (such as Airbus, Daimler-Chrysler, BMW, Siemens, Rolls-Royce, Snecma, Air Liquide, Gamesa, Tropical, etc) who will deal with the Further Research on Fuel Cell products and hydrogen technologies in general so as to develop the products of the future.

Tropical S.A. is the only Greek private organization that is included between the 50 members of the European Hydrogen & Fuel Cells Platform – Industry Grouping (JTI – IG) and of the only company in Greece that is dealing with Hydrogen & Fuel Cells Technologies the last 15 years. It is clearly understood that new challenges are arising from this platform, new ecological products will be developed which then will be overwhelm the market the next 20 years.