Powervault, a British company headquartered in London, partnered with Jaltek to manufacture and bring to market the UK’s first fully-integrated solar energy storage system for the home. Alongside their original lead acid storage systems they are now manufacturing a new range of lithium ion products.

Powervault was founded in 2012 by Sustainable Venture Development Partners, to design and manufacture the most practical and affordable solar energy storage system for the UK house market. Grants and prize funding enabled the business to develop and test prototypes before they went on to raise further capital in two world record crowd funding campaigns that finally enabled them to realise their ambition and start trading. In 2014 they raised a record £150,000 in just 8 hours and then a further £900,000 in 2015.

Joe Warren, Managing Director of Powervault commented; ‘Our aim is to help home owners lower their electricity bills, increase their energy security and reduce their carbon footprint. The idea is simple: energy generated by rooftop solar panels during the day charges up the Powervault battery, and then it is slowly released in the evening. This knocks a sizeable chunk off the amount of energy imported from the grid so it basically reduces your electricity bill. In the long run we want to change consumers’ energy consumption behaviour by encouraging energy efficiency and an off-grid mentality.’

Jaltek have worked with Powervault since their early seed capital, being involved right from initial concept through to their first product. ‘Jaltek were able to provide us with the full turn key service that we needed, working with us at the initial design stage through to complete box build and finally extensive testing and even delivery of the final product. They continue to offer us flexibility as our ideas develop and evolve,’ commented Warren.

Their product has been so well received that Powervault is focusing on expanding sales and investment and recently ran another Crowdcube campaign, this time raising a further £1.5 million, 200% above their target. Warren attributes this success to both a rising interest in energy storage and the easy to understand nature of their technology. ‘I think in general energy storage is a very exciting and growing sector. We’ve got falling battery prices, increased activity in the smart grid area driven by the rise in renewables and electricity prices are going up. There is an increased need for energy storage and 2016 is already proving to be a really exiting year for home energy storage. There is a lot of interest in any sort of smart grid business and we’re delighted to be working in this market’.

Steve Pittom, Managing Director of Jaltek commented: ‘From our first meeting with Powervault we were instantly excited by them. We recognised that theirs was a business with significant growth potential and we’re delighted to have been involved right from the beginning. With many energy storage technologies still in their infancy, Powervault offer an insight into what an effective renewables-based energy system could look like. Their business is the epitome of innovation being translated into successful production and we’re excited to be actively involved in the development of the UK’s clean energy storage market.’

For more information on Powervault and to keep up to date with all their latest products and news please see here.