The Future Economy Network kicked off their 2-part series on Decentralised Energy Systems by travelling to Bath on a beautiful icy early morning. The business breakfast took place on Tuesday 21st January, kindly hosted at the offices of Pure Planet. Pure Planet had booked a sustainable breakfast for the attendees from local vegan café, Roots & Shoots.
Katherine Piper, Director of The Future Economy Network welcomed attendees, highlighting the benefits of subscribing to the Network and also sharing exciting updates about The Future Economy Network’s Carbon Neutrality Hub in Bristol, Future Leap. Katherine also briefly ran through the plans for The Festival of Sustainable Business, where you can check out the video here.
Alice Brazier, Digital Service Adviser at Pure Planet, started the seminar by introducing how their company supports Decentralised Energy Systems in relation to smart meters. Alice explained how smart meters use ½ hourly energy data readings to combat the supply and demand energy problem that our traditional electricity grid faces. She explained the history of feed in tariffs, especially in relation to solar PV. With their closure in April 2019 came the introduction of smart export guarantees which helps facilitate a two-way energy grid. Alice suggested the future of the energy grid lies in digitisation, electrification, and decentralisation. She then suggested that business models will need to change for energy suppliers. She looked at examples of home generation, community power plants, district heating & grid sharing. This included Duracell’s electricity supply and Moixa’s virtual power plant.
Next up, we welcomed Peter Capener, Co-founder and Managing Director of Bath & West Community Energy (BWCE). Peter explained his history in developing community energy models and BWCE’s aims around community owned energy for the common good. Since 2010, BWCE have created over 12.35MW of solar PV, and have raised £16 million. They distribute surplus to community projects, such as orchard solar pumps and LEDs in village hall refurbishments. He highlighted the prominent system change, and the two main concepts to be addressed: supply and demand, and building public consent. He talked about the issues surrounding trust with data collection, that it needs to be done with the public, not to the public. Peter also showed that the increase in electricity demand is not going away; renewables are fantastic but we need to do something about heat and transport as non-renewable energy users. He then finished his presentation by talking about two offers for businesses. BWCE will install and maintain solar PVs on your business roof for free, and sell you back discounted electricity. This connects the company to their local community and can benefit from CSR value. The second offer was to join the flex community: optimising use of electric hot water & space heating via a smart app where you can see your demand needs and respond with the relevant supply needed.
Finally, we welcomed Monika Paplaczyk, Senior Investment Manager at Thrive Renewables, a sustainable energy investment company. Monika ran us through their experiences of projects, especially in relation to wind farms, and how they connect people with projects. Thrive Renewables are flexible on capital projects, always looking to creatively provide finance for small community projects where possible. She talked about the Greenvale Wind Turbine, a 1.5MW wind turbine installed in 2014. After a quick video explaining the turbine, she showed that the business source 70% of their electricity directly from the turbine to meet their net zero objectives. The company, a potato processor, collaborated with Greenvale on the project for direct clean energy. Monika finished her talk by suggesting the next step is futureproofing renewables by making subsidies unnecessary, and that they are always open to offer capital and expertise on renewable projects.
The seminar finished with some insightful questions to the panel and 60 second pitches from Greater Bristol Transport Alliance, Schumacher Institute, Bristol Energy Network and PAD. The event concluded with some valuable networking and finishing up the breakfast and refreshments. A huge thank you to Pure Planet for hosting the event, without this support we would not be able to do these wonderful inspiring events.
The Future Economy Network look forward to seeing you at another event soon! Details of upcoming events can be found here!