Online retail giant Amazon is supporting a new initiative in the U.K., which aims to combat energy poverty with the help of renewable power, according to Newstart Magazine.
Amazon is partnering with YES Energy Solutions and EnergyCloud to harness excess renewable energy generation for water heating in underserved British homes.
Energy generation must meet demand at all times on a grid, and that’s not just to avoid brownouts or blackouts from undergenerating. Generating too much energy can overload a grid, which can be a problem for renewable sources with natural peaks and valleys.
As a result, some renewable sources need to be cut off occasionally if there isn’t sufficient storage for excess power. This challenge is often visualized as the “duck curve“, whereby production will increasingly outpace demand during peak generation hours as more sources are installed.
In that vein, EnergyCloud said that in 2024, 5.7 terawatt-hours of surplus wind energy generated in England, Scotland, and Wales was wasted. That wasted power was worth over $1.3 billion. Meanwhile, about 13% of British residents have trouble meeting home energy costs.
According to EnergyCloud, a previous rollout of its water heating program in Ireland resulted in participants having access to free hot water for nearly one-third of the year.
EnergyCloud isn’t the only company putting excess renewable energy to work. One German service provider is using it to generate extra heat for industrial applications. Others in Texas are using spare power to mine Bitcoin.
Amazon’s participation in this project helps to clean up its track record on energy efficiency. Its data centers are notoriously power-hungry, and its participation in solar projects has been called into question. That said, it has also been named the top corporate purchaser of renewable energy in Europe.
Project partners were excited to get to work on making the most out of renewable energy in the U.K.
“This is an exciting and forward-thinking project that brings real-world benefits to the households who need it most,” said the CEO of YES Energy Solutions, Duncan McCombie. “By working with EnergyCloud and Amazon, we’re not only tackling energy inefficiency and fuel poverty, but also helping to maximise the environmental potential of the UK’s renewable energy infrastructure. It’s a triple win – for families, for the environment, and for our shared energy future.”
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