A ‘canny’ company in Scotland has created a business model that enables it to provide customers with free storage batteries.
Renewable electricity supplier Solo Energy has been trialling the idea on the remote Scottish islands of Orkney and is now ready to roll out the model to the rest of the UK.
In the Orkney Islands, SonnenBatterie units were installed in 30 properties with existing solar panels. The batteries were then aggregated into a ‘virtual power plant’ (VPP) using Solo Energy’s FlexiGrid software.
While this pilot project was relatively small, Solo Energy’s chief executive Mark Hamilton says it has proven how the technology can “revolutionise the future of the traditional energy system”.
He added: “We’re excited about the possibilities of this technology and look forward to rolling it out to a much wider audience over the coming months and years.”
The company aims to roll out its ‘free battery’ offer later this year and will target 5,000 homes with existing solar panels over the next two years.
Solo Energy is also planning a larger project in Orkney involving the free installation of vehicle-to-grid (V2G) chargers.
The company says it will announce its technology partners later this year, but that “several battery providers and V2G manufacturers will be used”.
The firm says it aims to recover the cost of these VPP assets over time by partnering with energy suppliers to sell ‘energy storage as a service’ and by trading capacity in wholesale electricity markets.