The Faraday Grid has raised approximately £40 million across several funding rounds and earlier this year announced that Adam Neumann, co-founder of global office company WeWork, made a £25m investment in the company. There are plans to undertake another capital raise, also this year. The technology, first tested in Glasgow, centres on the Faraday Exchanger, a new type of router replacement that can temper the flow of power at an individual point or be used alongside others to enhance a wider grid. This model makes the equipment affordable and the idea achievable, he says. “In essence, the energy system is changing, so we know that we changed the way we’re generating energy moving away from these large fossil fuel plants and hub-and-spoke model to distribute variable energy as well. “So, we are changing the way we use energy, we’ve got more electric vehicles, a lot more digital consumption.” “But”, Mr Williams, above, said, “the grid that connects all of these things together, all of these endpoints, hasn’t fundamentally changed in over 100 years. “The basis is still poles, wires, transformers and as the systems get more complex what we’re doing (now) is we’re adding more and more technology into the system to try and counteract the issues that we’re experiencing as it grows. “So, we see our technology as a platform to enable us to have this future that we want where we can have more renewable energy, we can have electric vehicles and we’re able to deliver all of these things whilst maintaining the reliability of the grid. “We want it to be green, be clean, that’s really important for the environment and it’s really important that energy stays cheap as well. “The challenge that in one sense we’re facing, I think it was coined by the World Energy Council, the ‘energy trilemma’, which is how do you have affordable, reliable and decarbonised energy systems. “Faraday Grid is an important part of that.
Herald 17th June 2019 read more »
Norwegian energy giant Statkraft and flexible grid specialist Statera Energy have today announced a new partnership to develop combined energy storage and flexible gas generation technologies in support of the UK’s net zero transition. The 15-year strategic partnership aims to deliver 1GW of flexible energy services as part of Statkraft’s UK-based Virtual Power Plant (VPP). Announced in March, the VPP project currently has 1GW of energy capacity under management, integrating wind, solar, battery storage, and gas generation technologies to provide a range of flexible grid services. The new partnership with Statera aims to bring the VPP’s capacity to its target level of 2GW.
Business Green 18th June 2019 read more »
