Powervault and a surprise
This episode of Fully Charged is all about Powervault, but there’s a nice surprise right from the start as Maddie Moate makes her first appearance presenting the show alongside Robert Llewellyn. She is most definitely a welcome addition to the Fully Charged team.
Anyway, let’s get onto the nuts and bolts of Powervault. You have all probably heard by now of household battery storage and Powervault in that sense is no different. They are a British company though and have partnered with Renault and Green Energy UK for two reasons.
The first and most obvious is that the battery storage they are creating uses recycled Renault Zoe batteries. In essence those old car batteries get a second life, which is a great as it means you don’t need to go and manufacture a whole new lot. Powervault can and do use new batteries as well, so the choice is yours whether you use recycled batteries or not.
The second reason is that by partnering with an energy supplier (Green Energy UK), they can align their product with an energy saving tariff. What that means in practice is that if you get your energy from Green Energy UK, then you could opt to have Powervault installed which would open up energy saving opportunities for you. With smart meters giving fine grain data and control over your energy supply, you decide when you draw power from the grid.
As explained in the video the immediate benefits aren’t so much for the consumer, but the industry as a whole. During peak times when energy demand is high, batteries will effectively take up the slack and smooth the peaks. When energy demand is low the batteries will be steadily charging and smooth out the troughs. That will in turn make things easier for the energy suppliers and help to bring prices down for everyone.
So finally, here is the episode.
