Did you know around €50m-€75m worth of electricity goes to waste each year in Ireland when turbines are powered down or energy dumped because more is being produced than can be immediately used? Typically, excess power is produced at night, with generators receiving automated signals to ease off or shut down turbines under the agreed “curtailment” policy. What if a simple immersion switch could pull this "excess" energy to heat water so households wake up to warm water, heated by renewable energy every morning.
As we move forward, storing energy in an economically viable way will be crucial to meeting our decarbonisation targets. Hot water cylinders are an ideal way to utilise existing infrastructure. 50% of homes in the UK already have a hot water cylinder, using these to store energy in the form of hot water means you can access this energy throughout the day, without having to deeply retrofit your home.
Curtailment is an issue for wind and solar farms worldwide. The long-term solutions most promoted are widespread battery storage to store excess power, or hydrogen plants to convert it to fuel for heavy vehicles and industry. However, mass deployment of climote Smart Immersion Controllers is an extremely viable alternative that could benefit the everyday consumer, provide demand-side management tools for grid operators as well as accelerate a move away from fossil fuels.