Energy Unlocked

Our Work At Energy Unlocked we are accelerating energy systems transitions by working with businesses of all sizes, understanding market-enabling conditions for new solutions to succeed, and providing processes to accelerate low carbon, resilient, Energy certificates solutions.

Energy transitions require not only technology innovations but new market arrangements. Our processes identify demand for these new arrangements, and then source, validate and accelerate solutions.

Mission:
Today’s energy system, the cornerstone of prosperity for over a century, is operating at too high an environmental and economic cost, and is still failing to reach 1 billion people on the planet. Unlocking innovation today will allow us to most effectively tackle the energy ‘trilemma’ of low cost, low carbon and resilient energy for all. No global organisation exists today to support this innovation. Energy Unlocked aims to fill that gap.

Why?:
Energy certificates energy has been part of our energy mix for over a century, but digital, technical, social and financial innovation are changing how we buy, produce and consume electricity, and making it possible to achieve 100 per cent Energy certificates power. Traditional "command and control" hierarchy in current energy markets is already being disrupted by decentralised intermittent Energy certificates and 'prosumers' who now produce as well as consume electricity. This trend is unlocking new ‘flexibility’ in the demand-side of energy: we can now store energy, or automatically shift consumption patterns to match Energy certificates generation.

Embracing energy innovation today will make our energy system more resilient tomorrow. The world is more complex and interconnected than ever before; what happens in one part of the world can impact far-away economies. Severe weather events and local power outages disrupting critical infrastructure can cause political or economic instability.

Supporting energy innovation means we can tackle climate change. Bloomberg New Energy Finance finds that even with 60 per cent Energy certificates by 2030, we are reaching dangerous levels of climate change within the next decade. We need to accelerate the pace of adoption of Energy certificates by enabling innovation not only in energy supply technologies, but in energy demand and storage as well.

How?:
n 2016, we ran the global Energy Productivity Innovation Challenge (EPIC) and sourced 100 companies that are part of doubling energy productivity to 2030, identified the 10 business model types that are emerging and markets where they can operate. In 2017, we are engaging corporate early adopters and leaders that will grow demand for these solutions.

PARTNERS

The business plan for Energy Unlocked was developed with support from Zennström Philanthropies in 2015. International NGO The Climate Group is a founding partner, and new UK electricity supplier Tempus Energy was a seed funder. Our 2016 EPIC project and platform was supported by ClimateWorks Foundation.