Ashley Grealish, CEO and co-founder of Windfall Energy, one of the GridFlex innovators, shares his experience working in the energy sector and how the company is helping deploy flexibility to the grid almost instantly

What problem are you solving and why does it matter for the energy system?

The clean energy transition is currently leaving half the country behind. If you live in a flat or a rental property, you generally can’t install solar panels or large home batteries. This creates a gap where homeowners save money on green energy, while renters stay trapped with high bills and carbon-heavy peak electricity.

This matters for the energy system because we can’t reach Net Zero without everyone’s participation. The grid needs flexibility – the ability to shift when we use power – to handle more wind and solar. By giving millions of flat-dwellers a way to store and shift their energy use, we’re unlocking a huge source of flexibility that the grid desperately needs to stay stable and clean.

What has surprised you most about working in the energy sector?

I’ve spent my career working on energy projects, from solar and batteries in East Africa to managing electric vehicle (EV) charging in the US. However, the real surprise was the irony of my own situation. Despite my years of energy expertise, I realised I couldn’t use a single one of the existing clean energy solutions to reduce my own bills at home in London.

Renewable technologies like heat pumps, solar and EV chargers exist, but none of them are designed for someone in my position, living in a fourth floor flat without a roof of my own.

It turns out that a huge number of people working in the energy sector face the exact same problem. We’re all trying to build a greener future that we aren’t actually allowed to join, which is exactly why we started Windfall.

Where do you see the biggest opportunity for your technology to unlock flexibility?

The biggest opportunity is speed and scale. Most home energy upgrades take months of planning, landlord permissions, and professional installation. Our battery changes that because it simply plugs into a standard wall socket.

This means we can deploy flexibility into the grid almost instantly. We are targeting the ‘ignored’ market of flats and rentals, which makes up about 9 million UK households. Because our product is already integrated with energy suppliers, we can help people start saving money and balancing the grid the day their battery arrives in the post.

What has been the biggest challenge in trying to deploy your solution so far?

There is a catch-22 with hardware startups. Manufacturing the product often requires investment, but investors want to see the product in people’s homes before they commit. We’ve had to be quite creative to bridge that gap.

For example, we’ve used off-the-shelf batteries to prove our software and optimisation algorithms actually work in the real world. By proving the core proposition on existing hardware, we’ve been able to demonstrate the additional value of our custom battery design before we’ve even finished the first production run.

What’s next for your technology and what are you looking for?

We are just about to launch pre-orders for our first limited run of Windfall Batteries. This is a big milestone for us, as it lets our early supporters reserve their units and helps us move straight into production.

If you want to be one of the first to get your hands on a battery – or just want to support the project – you can reserve your spot on our website. We are also looking for investment partners who want to help us tackle this forgotten half of the energy market.

If you’re interested in joining the journey, please do get in touch with Ashley at ashley@windfallenergy.com.

If you’re an innovator, industry partner or researcher who wants to be part of shaping the UK’s flexible energy future, you can register your interest in the GridFlex programme and stay informed about upcoming opportunities. Sign up here: https://www.digicatapult.org.uk/programmes/programme/gridflex/