The Megawatt Hour with BDO

The future of energy storage technologies

The Megawatt Hour is the latest podcast series from BDO and Energy Voice Out Loud.

Throughout this monthly series, we are joined by industry guests to discuss and examine how energy storage technologies are reshaping, reinforcing and recharging energy markets in the UK and around the globe.

From batteries to flywheels, consumers to policymakers, we will explore what these technologies look like, how they work, who is investing and building them and why they will be essential to the energy transition and the journey to net zero.

Episode 10: Back to the future

In our tenth and final episode we look to sum up our energy storage journey so far, recapping some of the most important learnings from the series and setting out where energy storage is headed in 2024.

On our way we’ll revisit the ins and outs of batteries and other storage technologies, the ups and downs of the power market and the meanders of the policy landscape.

Joining Energy Voice’s Andrew Dykes and BDO corporate finance partner David Bevan to help scan the past, present and future of the sector are John Twomey, director of customer connections at National Grid, and Joe Warren the founder and managing director of Powervault. 

The Megawatt Hour is a special podcast series brought to you by Energy Voice Out Loud in paid partnership with BDO.

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Over the course of eight episodes we have talked a lot about the current state of the energy storage market; this episode looks at where we are going, considering what the future of the sector might look like?

With a net zero 2050 as the guiding star for nearly all policy and energy decisions, how much storage will we need to get there? Where should it be deployed? What stands in the way? And what new technologies and developments might change the speed of that journey.
Joining content editor Andrew Dykes gazing into the crystal ball are BDO managing director John Strowger and Alexa Capital co-founder and fellow energy podcaster Gerard Reid.

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The rapid expansion of energy storage is of course great news for our ability to deploy and use renewable energy – but doing so is not without its own challenges. 

Batteries require raw materials from all across the world and an ever more complex supply chain; pumped storage sites require major changes to land use and access; and what can we do with facilities or assets that reach the end of their life – is it better to re-use, recycle or decommission?

And how do developers and investors ensure their commitments meet ever stricter guidance when deciding which projects to pursue?

Sorting the E’s from the SG’s is Professor Simon Pringle, who heads up the newly created Sustainability and ESG Hub at BDO and Peter Kavanagh, the chief executive and founder of developer and asset operator Harmony Energy.

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Energy storage and the home of the future

Having considered grid-scale storage, in this episode we drill down to the small-scale to focus on where we’re most likely to interact with the technology in our daily lives – in our homes.

As home energy systems become increasingly smarter, storage is set to play a greater role in how we use and consume energy - and hopefully will not only help us use greater amounts of renewables, but may even save us some money.

Taking a tour of the smart home of the future with content editor Andrew Dykes is BDO director of financial model assurance services Andy Hucknall and Emilie Romain, a co-founder and operations director at home renewables supplier Ecobubl.

The Megawatt Hour is a special podcast series brought to you by Energy Voice Out Loud in paid partnership with BDO.

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Episode 6: Energy storage in a 100% renewable grid

How energy storage can green the grid

In our first episode of 2023 we dive into arguably the most important aspect of how we are going to use and deploy energy storage – the network that underpins much of our electricity and energy systems, also known as the grid.

To discuss this, Energy Voice’s Andrew Dykes joined by BDO corporate finance partner David Bevan and RenewableUK director of future electricity systems Barney Wharton.

The UK already has an ambition to run a zero-carbon capable grid by 2025, and to reach 100% clean energy all the time by 2035. Energy storage will be essential to meeting those targets and ensuring greater amounts of renewable energy can be usefully deployed – but getting there will also require some changes to how we as consumers use energy, and how the grid itself operates.

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Episode 5: Finance, fundraising and a fully circular battery economy

The fifth instalment of our series sees Energy Voice’s Andrew Dykes joined by BDO corporate finance partner David Bevan and Nicholas Beatty, founder and director of Zenobe.

This episode sees us take a closer look at the role of finance and investment in the battery storage sector, exploring how investors and companies deploy capital, what makes a bankable project, whether expectations are changing with a maturing market and – perhaps most importantly - what investors expect to see in return.

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Episode 4: The energy revolution will be optimised

In the fourth episode of our energy storage box set series, Energy Voice content editor Andrew Dykes is joined by BDO senior audit manager Caroline Ingham and Flexitricity head of commercial Andrew Langlands todiscuss aggregators and optimisers.

Aggregators help manage the supply and demand of electricity on the grid by increasing or moderating the consumption of a group of consumers. This helps ensure stability on the grid and helps generate revenue for asset owners. We explore how companies like Flexitricity work, how they can help determine when to discharge and recharge battery storage assets, and what the future of this rapidly evolving segment might look like.

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Episode 3: Storing energy for longer, from hydro to hydrogen

In the third episode of our series, content editor Andrew Dykes is joined by co-host and BDO Associate Director Viran de Silva, as well as RheEnergise CEO Stephen Crosher and DNV VP for energy transition and innovation development, Sarah Kimpton.

Having taken a deep dive into the world of batteries, we now look at the other vectors available for storing energy from compressed air to heat – with a particular focus on the longer-term flexibility of hydrogen and pumped hydro. 

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Episode 2: Unlocking the battery storage business model

In this the second episode of our special energy storage boxset series, content editor Andrew Dykes is joined by co-host David Bevan, corporate finance partner at BDO, and by Ben Guest, managing director and head of the New Energy division at alternative asset management group Gresham House.

This week we’ll be taking a deep dive into possibly the largest and liveliest area of the sector today - battery storage. In less than a decade the UK has moved from having no large-scale battery capacity to more than 1.6GW in operation. 

We look at what’s driving that growth, the hurdles faced by the sector, and importantly what opportunities may lie ahead.

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Episode 1: The Megawatt Hour: Watts, how and why?

This is the Megawatt Hour, the latest podcast series brought to you by Energy Voice Out Loud in paid partnership with BDO.

In this, the first episode of our boxset series, Content Editor Andrew Dykes is joined by co-host David Bevan, Corporate Finance Partner at BDO and by special guest Marek Kubik, a founding member and Managing Director of energy storage technology company Fluence.

Together they take a broad look at some of the fundamentals of energy storage including the range of technologies available, how they work, and why the market is really taking off today as increasing amounts of new renewable capacity is added to the grid.

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