EV

As promised we have Claire Miller of Octopus EV on Smart Energy People this month talking about V2G and lots more. 

• UK govt opens new innovation competition worth £2m into V2X applications.
• With nearly 5% of the UK’s CO2 emissions coming from vans, the UK govt extends grants for electric vans and trucks by a further 2 years
• Full electric HGV trucks are now running on UK roads (Amazon)
• Just 10 months into its ownership of Electric Highway, Gridserve has upgraded all 300 motorway locations.
• I mentioned wireless charging last month and my friend Rene Savelsberg of SET Partners pointed-out Easelink which is similar but uses contacts (so more efficient and lighter).
• Gigafactory Berlin is online - amazing 2 min drone sequence with a Cyberdyne vibe.

Smart Energy

My dive into home batteries with Simon Daniel, co-founder and CEO of home battery pioneers Moixa is timely as energy prices rocket.

Grid-scale

• The world now has more than 1TW of solar PV.
• Since the Russian invasion the EU has given Russia more than €35bn for oil and gas vs. spending €1bn on aid to Ukraine.
• Could the EU stop all imports of oil & gas from Russia? Not easy but looks doable on a war footing.
• As Ukraine unhooks its Russian grid connections and connects instead westwards to Moldova, a new UK-Germany cable is started.
• Meanwhile the UK grid launches Dynamic Regulation to drive grid frequency closer to nominal in non-fault situations.
• The UK govt completed its proposals for a Future System Operator to manage grid transition to net zero.
• How can the UK grid move to net zero by 2035? Origami Energy analysis - next month Origami CEO Peter Bance joins me on the Smart Energy People podcast.
• “How can digitalisation solve workforce skills?” asks my friend Claire Rowland of utility grids.

Energy policy

• The UK government's Energy Security Strategy paper disappointed many by focusing on slow, supply-side changes like nuclear at the expense of fast, demand-side opportunities like efficiency and heat pumps.
• Contrast with the Dutch National Insulation Programme.
• The IEA offers a clear plan on how to achieve “energy sufficiency” almost overnight.
• The guru of energy efficiency Amory Lovins is always worth listening to

Other smart energy news

• Major IHD player GEO (7.5m units shipped) has been moving steadily into smart home energy and now launches a full Home Energy Management System (HEMS) claiming bill savings of 20%.
• Octopus buys heat pump manufacturer RED
• As thermal storage becomes a Thing, cue the Thermal Storage industry body. The Sunamp CEO has promised to come on my Smart Energy People podcast soon. Phase change ftw.
• Swiss direct capture firm Climeworks just landed $600m in new funding
• Even the ships servicing windfarms are going green.
• Niche perhaps, but Japanese printer people Ricoh have launched a 1kW micro-water-turbine.
• Looking forward to the upcoming Fully Charged Live expo in Farnborough - see you there?

IoT

• I discussed the evolution of performance testing for IoT with Josh Taubenheim of MachNation late last year, which they’ve just published it (lots more-interesting interviewees there too!).
• EveryNet now claims coast-to-coast LoRaWAN in the US (in zones, not blanket).
• ABI Research’s paper on Matter in the home predicts it will take-over the smart home almost entirely by 2030
• Well worth re-reading Pascal Bodin’s updated “soup to nuts” treatise on the state of IoT tech and its players.
• “A Roomba for your garden”. Thanks to StaceyIoT for spotting the launch of the Tertill, created by iRobot co-founders.
• Automated beehives? Beewise raises $80m.

Until next month,

-Pilgrim

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