Host: James McWalter
Guest: Grant McDowell | Co-Founder | Enosi Energy
Category: ⚡ Renewable Energy
Podcast’s Essential Bites:
[0:15] “Enosi is an energy trading platform, traceability platform in fact. What we do […] in essence is match the solar farm and the wind farm energy with the household consumption. And we do that by measuring the generation that's coming from a solar or wind farm meter, and then match that with the meter at the household or business. And in doing that simple matching and traceability, we can unlock source, time, and price. […] Because that accounting exercises is allowing us to see where the energy is coming from at a specific time and what Powertracer does is add price onto that layer, there's an enormous amount of value created.”
[3:07] “The biggest change [compared to 15 years ago, when I first had the idea of Enosi] is the cost of solar […] and wind. […] Nobody had got any of the predictions right around how that cost trajectory was just going to be […] a steep curve downward and that's what unlocked the value. So when I came into the industry it was very expensive, costing $60 or $70,000 to put something on the roof, and now costs $3,000 to put solar on the roof, same size. […] Australia leads the world in rooftop installations. We have over 3 million rooftop installations. And when I first joined the industry, there were 50 megawatts of solar installed across Australia. We now have 23.5 gigawatts of solar installed across their 15 year period.”
[5:23] “I think offshore wind is the next frontier and we'll be seeing huge value brought and again downward cost trajectory. […] The next 10 years are critical though, in that we need diversity. It's not just about simply rolling out more wind and solar only. We need the diversity in the mix to create that turbine wind, the winds not blowing, and the sun's not shining. So Powertracer and the work we're doing with 24/7 carbon free energy is that next stage […] in development in the tech and the industry.”
[6:36] “We’re a software layer that the different retailers […] will have within their billing systems. So we're […] essentially an accounting layer of software. And so if you lived in Australia, and you wanted to sign up to Powertracer, you could do so through our five electricity partners. [..] And essentially you can gain access to a utility scale profile or indeed you can do peer to peer trading with people who have rooftop solar installed. So those things sound quite straightforward, but what they do is unlock enormous opportunity, because we're seeing variations on that theme, where big tech firm in Sydney is about to launch a staff program, where they have a power purchase agreement from two solar farms, here in New South Wales, and extending that power purchase agreement through to their staff working from home. […] And what Powertracer’s enabling is for those that asked to have a staff energy program, those team members can get access to their clean energy during the day.”
[9:25] “What Powertracer is doing is measuring the source in that half hour trading period. […] So in that half hour trading period, we're seeing how many megawatt hours are coming out onto the grid. And then we're seeing how much energy is being consumed in that half hour period by the household and Powertracer is matching that out within that half hour period at a particular price. […] In Australia the utilities’ solar is cheaper than the firming price. And so we're able to offer clean energy cheaper than firming, because we're able to bifurcate the price for the first time. So traditional retail […] is never related to the source of the energy.”
[10:56] “We call that a path to true zero. So instead of just having 100% renewables and buying the certificates, what Powertracer enables you to do is to buy cheaper energy, because the solar is cheaper and the wind is slightly cheaper. So we've got cheaper clean energy, that's 76-77% of your load. And then for the balance of that load of 22 or 23%, you can buy certificates and be 100% renewable. So it's complimentary to the certificate market. But most importantly, you're able to see where that energy is coming from.”
[18:12] “We’re a SaaS player, so software as a service, and we only charge the householder $2.50 a month to use Powertracer. And that's done through the retailer. So it's such a small number that the retailers are absorbing that figure anyway. So it's a really good news story, if we can get this right to bring down the cost of energy and to keep the reliability there and move fossil fuels out in an excessively accelerated way. So we think it has great potential.”
[23:40] “Australia has led the way in so much of this distributed energy future, just because of the lowest cost installed solar in the world, rooftop specifically. We're down to less than $1 […]. I think the US is still hovering around $3.”
[34:12] “Australia [has] got a huge penetration of renewables. I think solar is nearly 30% […]. It's massive. But globally, solar is only 1% of the energy mix. We need to be in the 70% in the next 20-25 years. So if you map that out, it is just an incredible amount of clean energy that's coming and an industry that will continue to grow and prosper and bring lots of jobs, lots of innovation. And, I think the electricity sector has been very dormant and boring for a long time, but I think […] the next 10 years is gonna be a wild ride.”
Rating: ⚡⚡⚡
🎙️ Full Episode: Apple | Spotify
🕰️ 47 min | 🗓️ 01/11/2021
✅ Time saved: 45 min
