I first met Pete Armstrong as he was pitching at the Ecosummit event in Berlin in 2018 and last year. The scale of the impact possible in transforming our heating and water storage systems in our homes blew my mind. I’ve always been so involved in the ‘electrification of everything’, so I’ve watched since with interest. Mixergy were also mentioned in a recent podcast episode with Robert Trezona of IP Group, one of their early (and follow on) investors. So I thought I’d invite Dr Pete Armstrong to join us.
About our guest
Dr Pete Armstrong is CEO and co-founder of Mixergy, an Oxford University spin-out company which has brought to market a unique hot water tank. Pete completed his PhD on intelligent hot water tanks at Oxford Uni with fellow student and co-founder Ren Kang, before going on to win a Technical Innovation award within the 2013 Shell Eco-Marathon electric car competition, and a prize in a Climate KiC venture competition, which was the genesis of Mixergy in 2014. Mixergy has since received investment from IP Group, Oxford Science Innovation, Centrica Innovations and Foresight Williams to grow and develop the business.
About Mixergy
Mixergy has developed an intelligent hot water tank, which is unlike others on the market. The Mixergy tank operates on an integrated Internet of Things platform and is designed to selectively heat smaller portions of water. As a fleet, Mixergy aims to offer a Demand Side Response (DSR) service to the National Grid, absorbing excess power load and time shifting demand to help balance the grid. This “Internet of Tanks” vision will help to facilitate the generation and utilisation of more renewables nationwide to support a greener future. The Mixergy tank is also a benefit to consumers, saving up to 40% on hot water bills through sophisticated machine learning.
GUEST LINKS
Mixergy Website- www.mixergy.co.uk
Mixergy on Linked In: www.linkedin.com/company/mixergy-ltd/
Mixergy on Twitter: twitter.com/MixergyLtd
EPISODE LINKS
Cleantech Mixergy Raises £3.6M – www.businesscloud.co.uk/news/cleantec…gy-raises-36m
Mixergy on Fully Charged – www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1Z4JCoPAGc
Mixergy at Ecosummit 2019 – www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AL_wDpTVEc
Chaos: Making a New Science – James Gleick – en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaos:_Making_a_New_Science
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As you will have gathered from this podcast, I live in and love the intersection of clean technology and entrepreneurship. This passion, and my role as CEO at Hyperion Executive Search brings me into contact with so many fascinating people, and I love to hear and share their stories.
On recent podcasts I’ve spoken to leads at cleantech VCs, Publicly Listed tech funds and soon Corporate Venturing entities, but today a very import part of the funding ecosystem are Angels and Angel syndicates, and my guest Simon Acland has great insights into this part of the funding community.
About our guest
Simon Acland is a Founder and Director of Green Angel Syndicate, the only UK Business Angel group focussed on investing in companies that develop products and solutions that help tackle the climate emergency and environmental crisis and aim for a more efficient and sustainable use of global resources. He sits on the Board of Triple Point Income VCT plc, which has invested extensively in renewable energy and vertical farming, and is on the investment panel of the Triple Point Impact EIS Fund which makes green investments. He is a member of the investment committee of the Angel CoFund. He acts as chair or non-exec director of two companies he has backed in the green technology sector – Powervault, a developer and manufacturer of home electricity storage devices, including products which reuse batteries from electric vehicles, and NatureMetrics, a pioneer of environmental DNA sequencing techniques for monitoring biodiversity. Simon is a Non-Executive Director of the Satellite Applications Catapult, and Vice-Chair of Plantlife, the UK’s main wild plant conservation charity.
Simon has a successful track record from over thirty years of investing in young technology businesses. For 19 years he was part of the team that built Quester into one of the UK’s most active early stage venture capital investors, and was Managing Director when it was sold in 2007. Since then he has personally been an active Business Angel investor. Many of the businesses that he backed have floated on various Stock Exchanges, and/or been successfully sold. He has lost count of the number of company boards of which he has been a member.
Simon spent eight years as a Lambeth Borough Councillor and stood for parliament in 1987 as a candidate for the SDP/Liberal Alliance.
Simon’s 2011 book “Angels, Dragons and Vultures – how to tame your investors and not lose your company”, is widely regarded as one of the most useful guides for entrepreneurs to the world of venture capital. His First Crusade historical novels, the Waste Land and the Flowers of Evil, may be of less practical use to the budding entrepreneur.
GUEST LINKS HERE
Simon Acland on Linked In: www.linkedin.com/in/simonacland/
Green Angel Syndicate on Linked In: www.linkedin.com/company/green-angel-syndicate/
Green Angel Syndicate on Twitter: twitter.com/GAS_Investments
EPISODE LINKS HERE
Angels, Dragons & Vultures – www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/18578…rwt_bibl_vppi_i0
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What’s it all about?
I first reached out to Mike as I saw the incredible work he was doing as CEO of Ice Energy. As you’ll know, as much as I love traditional battery storage technologies, I also have a passion for thermal storage solutions, and Ice Energy has a great product. I’ve kept in touch as Mike moved on to new ventures, and had the opportunity to meet recently in San Diego at Energy Storage North America. Here we extend that conversation, into some possible controversial territory.
About our guest
Mike Hopkins is CEO of Bakken Midstream (www.bakkenmidstream.com), a company he and his partners launched in late 2018 to develop and own value-added natural gas infrastructure in North Dakota.
Prior to launching Bakken Midstream, Mike was the long-serving CEO of Ice Energy (www.ice-energy.com). Ice Energy is the leading provider of thermal energy storage for the electricity grid, with its award-winning Ice Bear system deployed in more than 40 utility service territories. During his tenure as CEO, Mike secured the largest ever thermal energy storage contract, expanded the product line, arranged over $55 million in funding and increased revenue over 700%.
Prior to joining Ice Energy, Mike practiced law for 18 years as a partner with Bennett Jones LLP, a preeminent Canadian law firm recognized internationally as a leader in the fields of energy and climate change. He helped his clients successfully develop and finance over $12 billion of natural gas fired power plants in the US, Canada, Australia and the UK. Mike served on the law firm’s Executive Committee and led their Utilities, International and Independent Power Groups. Mike left Bennett Jones at the end of 2002 to lead the workout of a private data center developer. After the successful sale of that company, Mike co-founded a geomatics company and assisted several other startups, including Ice Energy which he joined in 2009.
Mike is a member of the Committee for Economic Development of the Conference Board, the Board of Chancellors of Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International, and Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation Canada, and the Board of Directors of OGL Engineering, Nelumbo, Inc and Plus Power, LLC.
Mike is a member of the American Bar Association.
He has appeared on CBS Sunday Morning and been a featured speaker at many conferences, including the Infrastructure Investors Forum, Grid Modernization Forum, Energy Storage Association, Energy Storage North America, Peak Load Management Association, Community Storage Initiative, SXSW Eco, Electric Power Research Institute, Association for Demand Response and Smart Grid, NY-BEST, EUCI, PlugVolt, World Energy Engineering Congress, US Energy Bar Association, Law Seminars International, and various investment bank sponsored private events.
Mike received a B.A. and a law degree from the University of Ottawa, an M.A. (Law and Economics) from the University of Miami and an MBA from the University of Alberta
GUEST LINKS HERE
Mike Hopkins on Linked In – www.linkedin.com/in/michaeljustinhopkins/
Bakkan Midstream on Linked In – www.linkedin.com/company/bakkenmidstream/
Bakkan Midstream website – www.bakkenmidstream.com
Plus Power on Linked In – www.linkedin.com/company/plus-power/
Nelumbo on Linked In – www.linkedin.com/company/nelumbo-inc/
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I’m very keen to hear feedback on the podcast and my guests, and to hear your suggestions for future guests or topics. Contact via the website, or Twitter.
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What’s it all about?
At Hyperion we love all things energy storage, and we’re always following new companies and technologies that can and will enable the energy transition. I recently met the team from Gravitricity at a trade show I was speaking at, and liked the look of their solution, anything that uses old and established technologies for new and innovative solutions is good as far as we’re concerned, so we asked their MD Charlie Blair to share more.
About our guest
Charlie joined Gravitricity as a founder shareholder in 2015, having worked with co-founders Peter Fraenkel and Martin Wright while in the Innovation Team at the Carbon Trust. The team has grown since then and he’s been instrumental in developing the strategic relationships with manufacturing partners that will allow the technology to get to market fast. Gravitricity is currently building at 250Kw, 50 tonne, Concept Demonstrator in Leith, Edinburgh. Charlie has a Geography degree from Durham University and an Energy Systems MSc from Imperial College. He was elected a Fellow of the Energy Institute in 2019.
Gravitricity is an energy technology company based in Edinburgh developing groundbreaking underground storage. Grid-scale electricity storage spend is projected to grow from around $3 billion per year today to over $50 billion per year by 2040.
Gravitricity’s patented technology is based on a simple principle: raising and lowering a heavy weight to store and release energy. The Gravitricity system suspends weights of 500 – 5000 tonnes in a deep shaft by a number of cables, each of which is engaged with a winch capable of lifting its share of the weight. Electrical power is then absorbed or generated by raising or lowering the weight. Gravitricity technology has fast response (<1s), extremely long life, high efficiency and levelised cost of storage almost half that of chemical batteries. The technology will initially be deployed at existing mine-shafts; later on in purpose-sunk shafts exactly where the grid needs storage.
GUEST LINKS HERE
Website – www.gravitricity.com
Twitter – https://twitter.com/gravitricity
LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/company/gravitricity
EPISODE LINKS HERE
How UK’s disused mine shafts plan to store renewable energy https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/oct/21/how-uks-disused-mine-shafts-plan-to-store-renewable-energy
Edinburgh company generates electricity from gravity https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-50146801
Gravitricity are Crowdfunding https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WE2vgFZY5A
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What’s it all about?
It’s taken a while to get this in our diaries, but I’ve been following and speaking to Simon for some time, and I’m glad I had the opportunity to record this exploration of the battery supply chain, ethics, issues and costs that are so instrumental to the evolution and massive ramp up of electric vehicles and stationary storage. Some great insights here.
About our guest
Simon Moores is the managing director of Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, an independent price assessment company for that is most famous for setting the lithium industry reference price, together with graphite, cobalt, and nickel prices and analyses specifically focused on the lithium ion battery supply chain.
Simon is one of the world’s leading voices in this space and has specialised in the upstream portion of the supply chain, from mine to battery cell, since 2006. His key focal points include graphite, lithium, cobalt, cathodes, and battery cells.
Benchmark Mineral Intelligence has advised some of the world’s biggest actors in the lithium ion battery industry from cell manufacturers, to electric vehicle producers to mining companies.
Through a series of subscription offerings and private consultation, Benchmark’s analysts and independent market data has enabled raw material and battery contract execution, multi-billion-dollars of supply chain investment, and the build out of the 21st Century lithium ion battery supply chain.
Simon has been invited as an expert witness to testify to the US Senate, regularly gives guest lectures at the University of Oxford, and will present at The Royal Institution in London together with the UK Government’s Chief Scientific Advisor.
GUEST LINKS HERE
Benchmark twitter: https://twitter.com/benchmarkmin
Benchmark Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/benchmark-mineral-intelligence/
Simon’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/sdmoores
Simon’s Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/simon-moores-b0661418/
Lithium price holding page: https://www.benchmarkminerals.com/lithium-prices/
Benchmark home page: https://www.benchmarkminerals.com
EPISODE LINKS HERE
Belt and Road: A Chinese World Order https://www.amazon.co.uk/Belt-Road-Chinese-World-Order/dp/1787380025
The New Silk Roads: The Present and Future of the World https://www.amazon.co.uk/New-Silk-Roads-Present-Future/dp/1526607425
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What’s it all about?
Limejump are one of the great UK cleantech start-up stories. Recently acquired by Shell Ventures, the company continues to grow and play an active part in the clean energy transition. I talk to CEO and Co-Founder Erik Nygard about the company journey, including how they helped in the recent UK blackout, the future of energy and the part AI will play, how is life as a cleantech start up owned by an Oil major, and his optimism for the future.
About our guest
Erik Nygard – CEO & Co-Founder – Limejump. Erik has worked for Centrica and British Gas; while at Centrica it became clear to him that people did not have much opportunity to try and be more proactive when managing their electricity. Therefore, he decided to set up Limejump, knowing that there was a definite opportunity to provide a better product and proposition for customers. Most recently Limejump has won the Bloomberg New Energy Pioneer award for 2018, S&P Platts Rising Star 2018 and WIRED London Smarter Energy Stage and manages the largest portfolio of battery assets in the United Kingdom. Erik has led the development of the Limejump Virtual Power Plant (VPP) concept to create the Future of Energy. Alumni of University of San Francisco, BSC in Finance an MSC and Cass School in London – Energy Trade finance.
Limejump is a wholly owned, independent subsidiary of Shell New Energies.
GUEST LINKS
Erik Nygard on Linked In https://www.linkedin.com/in/erik-nygard-1685611/
- Erik Nygard on Twitter: https://twitter.com/emnygard
- LimeJump on Twitter https://twitter.com/Limejump
- Limejump website https://limejump.com/
- Limejump on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/LimejumpLtd/
EPISODE LINKS HERE
- Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography https://www.amazon.co.uk/Steve-Jobs-Exclusive-Walter-Isaacson/dp/034914043X
- Limejump – The future of energy – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNMIUuGrefE&feature=youtu.be
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What’s it all about?
I first heard Billy Wu speak at a renewable energy event in London about four years, and my inner battery nerd was born and thrust into the world. Dr Billy has the knack of being a fully fledged Dr of batteries, whilst being able to articulate to non scientific nerds like me, and possibly you, if you are reading this. We talk batteries, supercapacitors, and of course Hydrogen Fuel Cells, where we are, what’s next, and who will win!
About our guest
Dr. Billy Wu is a senior lecturer in the Dyson School of Design Engineering at Imperial College London where he co-leads the Electrochemical Science and Engineering group. His research activities include: energy storage/conversion technologies (lithium-ion batteries, redox flow cells, supercapacitors and fuel cells) and manufacturing (3D printing, nanofibre electrospinning).
He has published 35 peer reviewed journal papers, 2 book chapters and 4 patents since completing his PhD in 2014 and sits on the editorial board of Scientific Reports. He has been an investigator in research projects worth in excess of £46M, directly managing a budget of >£2M and is a co-investigator for the UK Faraday Institution battery research centre. He directly leads a team of 7 post-docs and 6 PhD students within the wider Electrochemical Science and Engineering group which has >50 researchers. Prior to his PhD in automotive proton exchange membrane fuel cell-lithium-ion battery hybrid systems, he completed his masters in Mechanical Engineering from Imperial College London in 2010.
Guest Links
- Billy Wu on Linked In https://www.linkedin.com/in/icbillywu/
- Billy Wu on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ICBillyWu
- Billy Wu/Imperial College website http://www.imperial.ac.uk/people/billy.wu
Episode Links
- The Powerhouse: America, China, and the Great Battery War https://www.amazon.com/Powerhouse-America-China-Great-Battery/dp/0143128329I
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What’s it all about?
Martin Baart has a passion to bring solar projects to the Commercial and Industrial (C&I) sector in emerging markets. Fighting against local misconceptions about what solar can do, and bigger issues around how to fund such projects, they found a solution through crowdfunding, and transparency in all areas of the business. Martin and ecoligo have a great business and story to tell.
About our guest
Martin Baart has more than 14 years of experience in the renewable energy industry with more than 10 years in emerging markets. He started his career with a German regional municipality on grid integration of grid-scale solar PV projects. During his Masters he lived and worked in Australia for the global leader in Microgrids, Powercorp, on the technical integration of solar and wind solutions into Microgrids, mainly for remote communities, mining operations and island utilities. Moving into business development he opened up the European office for Powercorp. After successfully entering the market, he supported the management in its sale of the business to ABB. For ABB he build up the Microgrid business unit in Madrid, after which he left to join Berlin based Start-up OneShore Energy as CTO and first employee. With them he developed the East African markets and technologies suited for the risk minimization of Off-Grid Solar PPA’S. After building up the company, he left in 2015 to prepare for the foundation of ecoligo, addressing the key barrier for solar projects in emerging markets: a fully serviced and financed solution, taking away all worries from the clients. Since then, he led the business into regional hubs in Central America, West Africa and East Africa and introduced the solution also for energy efficiency projects in the markets.
Martin is a qualified Electronics Technician, has a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering from Trier University of Applied Science, a Master of Business and Engineering from Steinbeis University in Berlin and a Global Executive Master of Business Administration from IE business school in Madrid. He also is a Certified Expert for Climate & Renewable Energy Finance from Frankfurt School of Finance and Management.
ecoligo provides a fully financed solar-as-a-service solution for businesses in emerging markets. With a complete digital platform for financing and delivering solar projects, ecoligo removes the barriers that prevent such projects from being realised. Supplying businesses with affordable electricity enables them to grow and boost the local economy. The solar projects are financed through the crowdinvesting platform www.ecoligo.investments, offering fixed and attractive returns to private investors. Investments start from 100€ and save tonnes of CO2 emissions, enabling impactful citizen participation in the global energy transition.
- Martin Baart on Linked In https://www.linkedin.com/in/martinbaart/
- Martin Baart on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MartinBaart
- ecoligo on Linked In https://www.linkedin.com/company/ecoligo/
- ecoligo website https://www.ecoligo.com& https://www.ecoligo.investments
- Martin Baart at EcoSummit 2019 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NATDMQzZraU
- ecoligo on Twitter https://twitter.com/ecoligo
News stories discussed this week
- The Berlin start-up ecoligo will receive EUR 2.5 million of funding from Saxovent, an investor specializing in ecological investmentshttps://www.newsghana.com.gh/ecoligo-receives-eur-2-5-million-funding-from-saxovent/
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What’s it all about?
Sven has a great story to tell, from a 5 person academic start up, to IPO and international expansion in just 10 years. Sven shares the highs and lows of the journey, what it takes to build a battery Gigafactory in Europe, and some possibly controversial thoughts on electric flight. A slightly longer than usual episode, but there was so much to cover. Tuck in.
About our guest
Sven has a great story to tell, from a 5 person academic start up, to IPO and international expansion in just 10 years. Sven shares the highs and lows of the journey, what it takes to build a battery Gigafactory in Europe, and some possibly controversial thoughts on electric flight. A slightly longer than usual episode, but there was so much to cover. Tuck in.
Sven Schulz has been the CEO of AKASOL AG since May 2018. He co-founded and was the sole investor of AKASOL GmbH in 2008 and served as Managing Director since that time, playing a key role in the development of the company.
An industrial engineer by trade, Sven has been active in the automotive industry since 2001 and is an excellent generalist in terms of technology. He completed his management training at the University of St. Gallen, where he holds an MBA.
AKASOL is a leading German manufacturer of high-performance lithium-ion battery systems for buses, commercial vehicles, rail vehicles, industrial vehicles, ships and boats. With almost 30 years of experience AKASOL is a pioneer in the development and manufacture of lithium-ion battery systems for commercial applications. AKASOL AG’s shares are traded on the Prime Standard segment of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange since June 29, 2018.
Based in Germany, AKASOL operates a production facility in Langen (Hesse) with an annual production capacity of up to 300 MWh, which will be expanded to 800 MWh by 2020. According to AKASOL, this is Europe’s largest lithium-ion battery system production plant for commercial vehicles, which can currently produce battery systems per year for up to 1,500 fully electric buses or for up to 3,000 medium-sized commercial vehicles, depending on battery size. AKASOL systems are manufactured according to the requirements of the industry standards of leading OEM customers. Current customers include Daimler, a Scandinavian bus and truck manufacturer, Alstom, Bombardier, Rolls-Royce Power Systems (MTU Friedrichshafen) and several more. AKASOL has a technology-independent product portfolio. This allows the company to use the best battery cells and battery chemistry according to the clients’ individual needs.
Sven Schulz on Linked In https://www.linkedin.com/in/sven-schulz-72a121137/
Sven Schulz on Twitter https://twitter.com/svenschulz
Akasol GmbH on Linked In https://www.linkedin.com/company/akasol-ag/
Akasol GmbH website https://www.akasol.com/en/
Akasol GmbH on Twitter https://twitter.com/AKASOL_PR
News stories discussed this week
Akasol opening manufacturing facility in Detroit. https://www.akasol.com/en/news-akasol-location-usa
AKASOL CELEBRATES GROUND-BREAKING CEREMONY FOR NEW HEADQUARTERS IN DARMSTADT https://www.akasol.com/en/news-akasol-headquarters-ceremony
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