Smart grids

1. The holy grail: long-duration storage tech

   The grid needs to connect to more renewable sources if we’re ever going to make clean energy widely available. But there’s a big problem: this energy is intermittent and unpredictable; while we have some control over fossil fuel generation, we can’t summon the wind or sun at will.

   The best we can hope for today is to store excess energy produced and then release it when supply drops. But many standard lithium-ion batteries offer maximum eight hours of storage, which is only adequate to handle daily demand fluctuations.

   Long-duration storage tech is a big money pursuit and there’s no shortage of ideas to achieve it. Among them is Milan-based Energy Dome, which has raised over €50m for a battery that stores renewables in a cost-effective way by turning CO2 gas into a liquid (or vice versa). Munich’s Voltstorage is also making big strides, with its sodium redox flow battery suitable for energy demands of 10-100 hours.

2. Grids are getting more complicated: can AI help?

   AI helps make smart grids, “smart”. Using real-time monitoring tools, power companies can unearth more granular, accurate insights into grid performance and flag malware threats. AI tools can also anticipate electricity demand and weather conditions to help power companies mitigate renewable energy’s intermittency problem.

   Sweden’s Eneryield is an AI startup helping to overhaul the grid: it analyses historical power quality patterns to predict grid faults, creating these early warnings that give operators time to take corrective action.

3. Can microgrids go big?

   Small power networks, or microgrids, help solve the “energy trilemma” of costs, carbon emissions and energy security, as they reduce the risk of power outages in the case of a central grid failure.

   This decentralisation of power into smaller regional hubs will see utilities requiring nifty management tools — and acquisitions by larger players might be the best exit route for early-stage startups.

   Octopus Energy subsidiary Kraken acquired Swiss platform Depsys in 2022, to boost monitoring capabilities of “decentralised” assets. German-owned utility E.on got in on the action and acquired Envelio in 2021 to further its decentralised renewable energy goals.

4. When smart makes you long for dumb

   New tech brings new problems. Fitting power networks with internet-connected devices creates more access points for bad actors, increasing the grid’s exposure to cyber threats. Hacking has caused blackouts over the years in countries including Finland, Ukraine and Türkiye.

   Madrid-based Barbara IoT has raised just shy of €3m to comb grid data for anomalies. Another player is Czech Republic’s GreyCortex, which has developed AI and machine learning techniques to head off attacks.

Who early stage startups are up against