Cleantech startups: German utilities bridging the valley of death?

April 10, 2017 by Marius Buchmann in Research

Cleantech startups suffered from several challenges in the past. Most prominently, many startups failed to acquire enough venture capital for a market rollout. This is currently changing in Germany. We discuss in this post what exatly is changing in Germany and how three factors together increase the chances of cleantech startups to succeed in the German energy market.

Blockchain in the energy sector: Institutional disruption?

March 30, 2017 by Marius Buchmann in New Concepts

Blockchain is driving a lot of discussions in the energy sector lately. Let us suppose that the blockchain technology can overcome its current challenges and unlock its potential in the energy sector: Which institutional implications could we expect in a scenario where the blockchain becomes a standard tool in the energy sector? What happens with retail or network operation? How about regulation? These are the questions we try to address in this post.

Digitalization in the Energy Sector – Challenge accepted?

March 20, 2017 by Marius Buchmann in Research

Utilities are at a crossroad: They can follow their established paths and focus on their traditional long-term business models. Or they face the challenges of digitalization and adapt to the faster innovation cycles related to digital business models. We discuss the utilities' strategies related to digitization and find arguments that support both scenarios. Which way are the utilities going to take? Let's see.

Multi-Use – The Kick-start for battery storage markets?

March 10, 2017 by Marius Buchmann in Research

The energy transition can gain from battery storage. However, battery storage is not yet profitable in all markets. This changes if the battery provider does not only address one, but many different markets. This is the idea behind the multi-use approach for battery storage. We discuss two challenges for this concept and three potential solutions: dynamic network charges, regional flexibility markets and regulation.

Looking ahead – Where are we going with this blog?

March 04, 2017 by Marius Buchmann in General

The beginning of enerquire. We are very excited to be online and look forward to an interesting discussion with you. Our first post sets the scene for the contents that will follow within the next weeks. We introduce the general perspective of this blog and the questions that we want to address.