Renewable Energy Installer February 2015 | Page 13

News: Company profile
Transfer of power
A new company dedicated to supplying and installing affordable storage systems
for renewably generated electricity is starting to make waves in Cornwall, reports
Wattsor founder Peter Cunningham
W
attstor has developed
its own smart-
switching and
battery storage
systems designed to
optimise the electricity generated
by solar panels, wind turbines and
other renewable sources.
The systems can be fitted
to any property – domestic,
commercial, industrial, agricultural
- and currently cost in the range of
£600 to £1000 per KWh of energy,
with warranties of five to 20 years.
Wattstor was founded
by chartered engineer Peter
Cunningham after he ‘retired’
to Cornwall and built his own
‘energy-positive’ eco-home. He
saw the first offerings on energy
storage systems in 2012 and
set out to design an affordable
system to challenge criticisms
that renewably energy generation
was intermittent and at the ‘wrong
time’.
A Wattstor ‘banks’ surplus
renewable energy, rather than
sending it back to the grid and
then ‘withdraws’ it when the sun
goes down or wind drops. Peter
believed that for it to be a real
game-changer it would need to
be affordable and viable without
subsidy.
Peter teamed up with Mark
Smith, MD of existing Cornish
renewables firm ZLC Energy.
They came up with a system
that in the domestic setting uses
energy generated firstly to satisfy
household loads, then charge the
batteries and, finally, to power an
immersion heater for water. Only
once those demands have been
met does the Wattstor send any
power back to the grid. There is
also a standby power facility in the
Number crunching: The Wattsor microgeneration power diverter can reduce PV-generating households’ electricity
imports from the Grid by as much as 80 percent, claims company founders Peter Cunningham and Mark Smith
event of a grid supply failure.
There is another benefit.
As FiT payments for systems up
to 30kW capacity are based on
energy generated and not the
amount sent back to the grid, it
leaves them unaffected. So the
property owner gets to store
and use more of their own ‘free’
energy, minimising consumption
of expensive grid energy.
Peter and Mark realised
it was not good enough to ask
potential customers and investors
to take their word for the system’s
performance, so arranged for it to
be monitored and independently
reviewed by the Environmental
Sciences Institute of the
University of Exeter’s Penryn
Campus.
They monitored the prototype
Wattstor fitted in Peter’s home
and concluded: “The electricity
import (using utility company
data) in July 2012 was 534 kWh
with solar PV only. In July 2013
with a Wattstor fitted this was
107.9 kWh. This represents an
80 percent reduction in utility
company import to the home
during summer periods of high
solar generation.
“The Wattstor substantially
maximised the self-consumption
of solar PV generation and
minimised the import of grid
electricity at the test site during
the monitoring period.
“The daily electricity import
from the utility company averaged
3.5 kWh (costing 53p at a 15p tariff
rate) during July 2013 and on two
very sunny days was less than 1
kWh.”
The payback period for the
test site was calculated to be 5-7
years
Field testing apparently
confirmed the attainment of the
design objectives – maximum
free energy consumption and
minimum expensive energy
import.
Full reports on the prototype
and testing are published on the
company’s website www.wattstor.
com
Peter and Mark funded
the company themselves for
the testing phases but needed
to secure the capital to launch
the business commercially.
After much time-wasting with
banks, this was done using a
local crowdfunding approach. By
the end of August £150k launch
capital was raised in full from
eight local investors, recruitment
commenced and marketing, sales
and installations got underway.
The company has committed
to remaining in Cornwall for
the next six months or so and
will then look at a nationwide
expansion via accredited/trained
installers.
www.renewableenergyinstaller.co.uk | 13