The former vice-president of Tesla EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa), Ben Hill, has been appointed commercial and technical adviser of energy storage specialists, Solo Energy.
Hill, who has a background in leadership roles in solar and energy businesses around the world, has “significant experience” in battery storage and electric vehicle technology.
At Tesla he founded and ran Tesla Energy across the EMEA region.
He will assist Solo with achieving its vision of a “100 per cent renewable energy future” by making solar and wind power more viable through the creation of “virtual power plants”.
The company’s solution to coping with the variability of renewable energy is to install small-scale batteries and V2G (vehicle to grid) technology in homes and offices, and to combine them into virtual power plants which can be intelligently switched on to supply electricity when demand exceeds generating capacity.
Solo’s “FlexiGrid” cloud platform, which has been in development since 2016, operates these assets in partnership with energy suppliers.
As battery storage locations will be distributed across thousands of residential and commercial premises, Solo says it has a “further benefit of reducing the burden on the national electricity distribution grid” because energy is generated, stored and consumed locally.
Hill said: “I’m incredibly excited to be working with Solo Energy. The team have a strong vision for the future, and its peer-to-peer trading concept using the latest blockchain technology is cutting edge.
“In helping Solo Energy bring its business model to reality, I’m fulfilling my own ambitions to push forward the sustainable and renewable energy revolution. By making reliable low carbon, low cost, sustainable energy accessible to homes across the UK and Europe, we believe we will change the face of energy generation forever.”
Mark Hamilton, chief executive and co-founder of Solo Energy, said: “We are delighted that Ben has agreed to be a part of Solo Energy’s journey.
“Our company goal is to lay the building blocks for a 100 per cent renewable world, and Ben’s experience encompassing both energy and battery technology will be invaluable in achieving this goal.”