Battery energy storage specialists Connected Energy celebrate a successful year of growth with an expanding workforce, £15m investment and a positive market forecast for 2023.
2022 has been a significant year for second-life battery energy storage systems (BESS) company, Connected Energy, as the drive for organisations to decarbonise combined with global instability in the energy market and high-profile events including COP27 has delivered a surge of enquiries into battery energy storage.
For Connected Energy, this rising interest has resulted in its commercial sales turnover more than quadrupling over the last twelve months; the workforce increasing by a third at sites in Newcastle upon Tyne and Norfolk; the company’s largest installation to date and second life use created for 250+ electric vehicle batteries.
The company has also welcomed a £15m investment from new investors including Caterpillar Venture Capital, Volvo Energy, Mercuria Energy Trading S.A. and OurCrowd who are committed to supporting the transition to clean energy using BESS to build the infrastructure required for renewables.
Matthew Lumsden, CEO, Connected Energy says:
“This additional funding alongside the strategic value of our new investors will make a real contribution to our ability to scale up our business and move into utility scale project development. This will bring huge opportunities to the company in the year ahead.”
In addition, Connected Energy has won several significant new projects with organisations in 2022, including North Tyneside Council, Cranfield University, Dundee City Council and Nottingham City Council to install battery energy storage for solar capture, EV charging support and constraint management.
Connected Energy also celebrated the launch of its Battery Storage as a Service (BSaaS) financial model, which allows all aspect of design, installation and management software to be combined into monthly payments to avoid upfront capital costs. This will allow more companies to adopt BESS as a transformative technology.
A recent project saw two battery energy storage systems installed at the University of Sheffield’s AMRC NorthWest. The systems are linked to a range of renewable technologies to allow the site to store and utilise the energy generated. The AMRC NorthWest acts as a manufacturing energy ‘show home’ allowing other businesses to see how they can manage and reduce energy bills, reduce carbon emissions, and increase energy consumption and security.
Award wins and nominations have been a highlight for Connected Energy, and alongside winning the Sustainability in Tech award at the regional Dynamo North East awards earlier this year, the team has also recently been shortlisted for the Edie Awards in the category of ‘Circular Economy Innovation of the Year’. The repurposing of electric vehicle batteries in Connected Energy’s battery storage systems, doubles their value and reduces their environmental impact working towards the award’s criteria for bold climate leadership.
Matthew comments:
“We see batteries as the means to transforming our energy systems and Connected Energy’s growing teams in Newcastle and Norwich are becoming centres for energy innovation and expertise in every aspect of the electric battery circular economy.
“The investment we’ve seen this year, alongside a range of successful tenders and installations demonstrates a rapid business growth for Connected Energy and we are expecting to attract even more specialist skills and services to the company in the coming years.
“For us, the priority is to continue to scale up our business and systems to meet the growing availability of second life batteries and to capitalise on the market opportunity that brings.”
Connected Energy expects to see interest sustained at a high level from commercial and industrial customers who are focussed on de-risking supply and moving towards self-sufficiency, alongside low carbon energy supplies.