What does ECO STOR do?

What does ECO STOR do? This is a common question we often get. Let's explain. 

There is a lot of talk in the market about batteries, and how important they are for a more sustainable future. But why? And how? The answer is multifaceted. Let’s start with why. 

The global average temperature for the past 12 months (July 2023 – June 2024) has been the highest on record, at 0.76°C above the 1991-2020 average and 1.64°C above the 1850-1900 pre-industrial average. Simultaneously, another trend is our electricity consumption which has more than tripled between 1980 and 2023. As the climate is becoming increasingly more volatile and extreme, we are also becoming more and more dependent on electricity. Both as a way of becoming “greener” such as EV’s and battery-implemented public transportation. But also because of our increasingly technological lifestyles. We save our documents and photos in “clouds” – which are not actually in the cloud but stored in buildings, massive structures filled with thousands of hard drive-bearing racks using a vast amount of energy. A Carnegie Mellon University study concluded that the energy cost of data transfer and storage is about 7 kWh per gigabyte. We charge our phones, laptops, and cars. We watch TV and use dishwashers and washing machines on a near-daily basis. We have become accustomed to a certain lifestyle. At the same time, we depend on power grids developed far before we could even imagine the amount of power we would require. To combat the use of oil, natural gas, and coal to produce electricity which negatively impacts our climate, we are investing in more sustainable energy sources, such as wind and solar. But these sources of energy aren’t as stable as the more traditional ones. The sun doesn’t always shine, we can’t plan when there will be wind. These sustainable sources pose several obstacles to the energy market. The power grid needs to be stable; the supply must meet the demand 24/7. Having a surge of power that isn’t immediately used, or high demand with low inflow causes irregularities. The solution? Batteries. Simply put. Batteries can charge when there is a high inflow, and feed power into the grid when the demand is higher than the amount of power in the grid. To incentivize the use of batteries to alleviate and help the grid, governments subsidize battery investments, give tax benefits, and most importantly, pay for the use of the batteries, either for them being on stand-by or using them. 

So I can buy any battery, plug it into the grid and start making money? 

Well…almost. We encourage everyone to invest in battery energy storage systems, it is an investment into resilience, the climate, and your own business. But one of several things we also encourage businesses to consider is if your chosen provider has experience with prequalifying batteries to grid, and if they are partnered with a power company. Our partner for example is Entelios. Think of them as your stockbroker. You can easily do your research and buy your stocks directly in different markets and track them to the best of your ability, or you can have a stockbroker whose sole job is for you to make money on the money you are investing. Instead of trading in one market, they can easily navigate the landscape and invest it in the most profitable one. Because the frequency market is just that, a market with several needs such as FFR, FCR, FCR-D, with “commerce” happening in intraday and day-head. 

So back to what WE do. Our customers get their products already assembled, and installed and don’t have to think about them much more, they sit there and either save them or make them money. But within the box, there aren’t just batteries. There is a whole intricate world of computing and wiring. In the picture for example, you can see two of our colleagues working on the BIU (the battery interface unit), the “brains” of the BESS. It talks to the batteries and our software and enables its connectivity to the grid, your business, your solar panels, and much more. That piece of hardware, developed by and continuously upgraded by our team in Norway enables our carefully selected top-tier batteries from both our first-life and second-life series, to seamlessly integrate into your exact needs. 

We work with and around batteries, it might look like a box to you, but to us, it’s a whole universe of development and opportunity.