£15m investment into north east company, Connected Energy

A further highly successful round of investment for Connected Energy has secured £15m from five new major investors and will be welcome news to all those keen to see increased energy security, improved use of clean energy and extended lifetime use of electric vehicle batteries in energy storage systems (BESS).

Caterpillar Venture Capital Inc., the Hinduja Group, Mercuria, OurCrowd and Volvo Energy have joined existing investors Engie New Ventures, Macquarie, and the Low Carbon Innovation Fund with a total investment of £15m, to back this world leading venture on the energy storage landscape.

With its HQ in Newcastle upon Tyne and Technical Centre in Norfolk interest in Connected Energy is particularly high because it is one of only a handful of companies in the world to have proven that second life vehicle batteries can be used in commercial battery storage systems, with the huge environmental benefit this brings.

This next phase of investment will enable Connected Energy to scale up its technology and operations in response to a growing energy storage market and increasing international availability of second life batteries.

With an estimated 6.7 million pure EVs operational worldwide and 34.7m predicted globally by 2030, the potential for battery reuse is vast, as is the need to ensure the resources in the batteries are used effectively. With this investment Connected Energy aims to scale up its business to utilise a predicted ramp-up in 2nd life battery availability in 2024/25.

Supporting the use of renewable energy sources, battery energy storage has been described as the ‘true bridge to a clean energy future’, and the UK is one of the fastest growing markets in the world.

Rising fuel prices have caused many organisations to consider the use of energy storage to reduce costs, increase self-consumption and generate new revenue as well as solve problems such as supply constraints. As a consequence, Connected Energy has already booked more projects in the first three months of 2022 than in any previous year.

Joachim Rosenberg, President Volvo Energy said, “together with Connected Energy, we will minimize the environmental impact of the batteries that has powered Volvo Group applications. By repurposing the batteries, we obtain the full value from them – from a climate, environment and business perspective.”

Alexis Flandre, managing director of energy transition at Mercuria said, “amid the rapid electrification of the transport sector and the growing intermittent renewable sources of power supply, we are joining with Connected Energy to provide needed sustainable flexibility solutions in energy markets.”

Connected Energy CEO Matthew Lumsden concludes, “we couldn’t be more pleased to welcome our new investors on board and look forward to forging a path to increasing the sustainability of both electric vehicles and grid connected energy storage.”

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