Solar power at scale
Naked Energy, a UK company that specialises in solar technology for commercial and industrial applications, has been working with EIT Climate-KIC since 2012. The Accelerator programme graduate and Venture competition winner has two Innovation projects on its CV. It started commercial trials at UK supermarket Sainsburys at the start of 2017 with support from the UK government’s Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC). Achievements for 2018 include the large-scale installation of Naked Energy’s Virtu system at Deltares campus, a research institute in the Netherlands, and supplying one of the energy systems for Swansea’s ‘Active Building’, the first energy positive building in the UK.
Problem
“Half of all the world’s energy goes on heating and cooling buildings. This represents approximately 40 per cent of all CO2 emissions,” says Christophe Williams, founder and managing director, Naked Energy.
Solution
Naked Energy has developed Virtu, a patented, hybrid solar tube that generates electricity and heat for commercial and industrial applications.
Impact
“We don’t have a generic estimate of our environmental impact – let me share some examples from two of our projects,” says Christophe Williams, founder and managing director, Naked Energy.
“We’ve calculated that each of the Virtu tubes installed at the Deltares campus can deliver 320kWH of heat/ year. We’ve installed 120 tubes so the total for that site is 38MW hours of heat. Each tube will displace 75KG CO2, which comes to 1.5 tonnes a year.
The Active Building in Swansea, however, is the UK’s first energy positive building – we’re turning buildings into power stations! You can see the live data online.”
What did EIT Climate-KIC do?
Naked Energy has been working with EIT Climate-KIC since 2012. It is an Accelerator programme graduate and Venture competition winner with two Innovation projects on its CV. An EIT Climate-KIC Innovation project sees the large-scale installation of Naked Energy’s Virtu system at Deltares campus, a research institute in the Netherlands.
“Climate-KIC has been a trusted companion and partner over the years,” says Christophe Williams, founder and CEO of Naked Energy. “We’ve been on a tremendous journey of discovery since we were first introduced in 2012.”