SaaS platform for the decarbonized, decentralized and digital energy future
Putting solar panels on your rooftop has become a valid option due to mass manufacturing, technological advancements, and government incentives. The costs for residential solar installations sank by 50% or more over the past 10 years, which reduces the payback period for homeowners to less than 10 years in most cases.
The generic wording in the previous passage hints at the underlying problem. The actual cost depends on several factors. For instance, ample storage capacity in my home helps me make full use of the harvested energy and allows me to sell it back to the energy provider when demand is high to optimize my selling price.
An additional problem is the transmission losses when electricity travels long distances. Therefore, keeping the energy surplus in the local community from an environmental and economic standpoint makes much more sense.
However, managing my energy demand and trading my surplus can become complex quickly. If I set out to do this manually and strive to optimize my savings, I would need to consider factors such as the weather, demand, surplus, storage capacity, and dynamic tariffs.
Prosumers who consume and produce energy lack a companion to handle this complexity.
The ETH-spinoff Exnaton set out to enable local peer-to-peer energy communities through its digital billing and renewable energy management platform. The startup's approach makes the transition to renewable energy more accessible, financially more attractive, and more interesting for prosumers and more attractive for consumers to make the switch.
Our friends at Übermorgen Ventures introduced us to Exnaton. Anselma and Liliane were shaping the product concept for a mobile app to serve the prosumers. This product should extend the platform used by energy service providers and put Exnaton's capabilities directly into the hands of end users.
Piloting our newly structured startup support program, we created a mobile concept in a design sprint. Purposefully, the idea focuses on prosumers who do not have a tremendous amount of knowledge of the subject. The main goal for the target segment was to understand if "now" is a good time to use more energy to do the laundry, cook, or charge their EV. While the concept shows some stats, it intentionally shies away from being overly technical.
The product roadmap foresees that large parts of the energy management process will be handled automatically in the future. The user can control with minimal input. For instance, specify when your usual demand changes due to holidays. We kept the concept light to introduce you to the underlying mechanics that determine your costs and earnings.
Overall, the app lets you understand where your energy is coming from, to what degree your community is self-sufficient, and how you can lower costs and reduce your carbon footprint even further.
The local community aspect creates a sense of reciprocal benefits and helps to avoid transmission losses.
As an initial step, the mobile concept helps to make the product roadmap more tangible for the team and potential investors. As Exnaton enables households to trade solar power directly with neighbors, promoting such local energy communities, this bottoms-up approach is the right strategy to shift to a more sustainable energy future – one that is decarbonized, decentralized, and digital in nature and better for you, your neighbor, and ultimately the planet.