Making clean energy more accessible for homeowners can have a number of benefits. Not only can it reduce household bills – something that is critical amid the energy crisis – but it can also help educate the general public on the perks of renewable technologies.
Swarm, a newly launched green energy management startup, was founded to “change the way people buy, generate and use power in their homes”. The business, based in Newcastle upon Tyne, is opening its doors to customers in North East England, before a national roll-out in 2024.
Central to the company’s ambitions is its ‘Swarm Q-Bee’ technology, a new energy management system that is able to communicate with and control a long list of home energy devices, from solar panels to batteries and to EVs.
To find out more about the company, Current± spoke with Matthew Martindale, head of marketing, at Swarm.
Could you provide me with a bit of a background on Swarm and how it fits into the UK energy space?
Energy is currently controlled by a small number of companies, who’re able to have an enormous influence on everything from price, through to the makeup of energy we receive (i.e. gas, coal, renewable). Customers have never had a feeling of control, and unlike nearly everything else they pay for, there are little to no alternatives.
Swarm brings a new perspective for homeowners, providing a way to make home renewable energy devices an even better financial option by aiding in using their cleanly generated energy in a more efficient way, saving both money and further impact on the environment. Through this we aim to make home renewable energy generation more accessible, as well as building a foundation for the fully electric homes of the future, ahead of the eventually switch off of gas.
What are some of the greatest challenges when trying to optimise energy management within a home? How can renewables help with this?
Electricity is precious and costly to generate, but technology came along that gave us a way to generate it on our roofs, and recently even store it at home. The piece we’ve all missed is making sure our homes are using this energy smartly.
Right now, devices that generate and devices that use large amounts of electricity (a heat pump or EV charger) don’t talk to each other and in this gap, homes with renewable energy find themselves still using a lot of electricity from the grid.
We’ve developed Q-bee to automatically manage a home’s energy ecosystem; from making sure the battery has enough energy to power a home in the evening (avoiding peak pricing), automatically identifying excess you can sell back at peak prices, to knowing the best time to recharge your EV so that it doesn’t interfere with other devices or go looking to the grid for more kilowatts.
What agreements/partnerships have been secured already to help the business expand into the growing market?
Swarm is partnering with Opencast, one of the biggest players in development in the Northeast. With their help, we’re able to build a solution at a phenomenal rate and can test it on physical equipment in real-time; we’re even establishing a joint lab in a shipping container that can be set up to emulate a home, with an array of devices to simulate average energy needs.
Having seen the potential of Swarm, Opencast CEO, Tom Lawson has joined our board of directors to help our journey.
We’re also building partnerships with technology and industry retailers, aiming to places Q-bee as both a device available to renewable energy installers and consumers looking to add a device to their home.
With the company having recently launched, what do you hope to achieve in the coming years? What are your growth plans?
We believe we have something very special in Q-bee, that can really help people from all backgrounds and households. Our primary goal is to get our product into as many homes as possible, initially in the UK but with an eye to expand internationally.
As the renewable energy market continues to grow, with solar installs this year hitting new monthly records, we’re aiming to make that fantastic progress even more potent.
As Swarm’s community of users grows, we’ll also be able to begin offering ways for Q-bee users to sell and share their energy amongst each other, and then eventually we’ll form a VPP (virtual power plant) by harnessing the excess energy from Q-bee homes and selling it combined back to the grid, for a better rate.
Is there anything you’d like to add that our audience should know?
We truly believe this is a turning point for energy and an opportunity for people to finally take control of their energy and have a bigger role in protecting the environment for future generations. Swarm isn’t just releasing a product, we’re hoping to lead an energy revolution that’ll help homeowners across the UK feel in control and no longer have to worry about increasing energy costs, their energy’s impact on the environment and the threat or brown and blackouts.
You can find out previous article in the Current± Disrupters series here.