Enspired, a Vienna-based company which helps owners of energy storage assets — such as battery facilities — to sell on their power capacity, has secured a €25.5m Series B round.
The round shows that, as more renewables are hooked up to the electricity grid, investors are cottoning on to the opportunity around the energy storage market.
Enspired’s round was led by London-based Zouk Capital and includes participation from Push VC, Banpu NEXT, Vopak Ventures and Presidio Ventures, Emerald Technology Ventures, Helen Ventures, 360 Capital, and EnBW New Ventures.
Enspired, which was founded in 2020, previously secured a $8.7m Series A round in 2021.
Keeping the grid going
Energy grids around the world are facing an enormous shake-up. Historically, they’ve relied on fossil fuels, which are easy to ramp up and down depending on demand. Some renewable energy sources like solar and wind are different: they can’t be turned on and off on command to match that demand.
To cope with the change, grids are integrating more battery storage. Batteries can store up wind and solar power when it’s flowing, and then dispatch into the grid when demand is higher and there’s less energy being produced.
Enspired partners with battery owners to connect their assets to the power markets, allowing them to sell their capacity at times when extra energy is needed.
Enspired says it can help increase battery owners’ revenues by 60% by optimising how they access trading markets.
The grid solutions ecosystem
Other companies working on software to help balance energy supply and demand include Dutch startup Sympower. It works by partnering with companies that use a significant amount of energy. It gains access to their systems that use energy and can turn them on and off when the grid requires balancing.
Other startups are working on batteries themselves. In the UK, there’s Field, which is working on several large-scale battery storage sites, and in Sweden, there’s Ingrid Capacity, which has six battery storage sites.
Read the orginal article: https://sifted.eu/articles/enspired-tech-battery-storage-news/
