Lightsource Labs and Pure Planet team up for solar and storage offering

Energy technology company Lightsource Labs has teamed up with supplier Pure Planet to develop a domestic solar and storage solution.

Pure Planet will use Lightsource Labs’ home energy management technology Tribe and its virtual power plant (VPP) platform to optimise solar and storage installations, reduce consumer bills and provide grid flexibility services.

By managing devices as such, Tribe can reduce energy costs by up to 20%, said Lightsource Labs. This is on top of savings generated by the solar and battery system, with estimates modelled using 12 months’ data from existing Tribe customers in the UK, and based on a home with 4,000kWh of annual demand, a 4kWp PV system and a 6kWh battery, as well as a time-of-use tariff.

Customers of Pure Planet, of which BP owns a minority stake, will be eligible for a discount on the upfront cost of solar and battery storage, allowing them to become part of the VPP. Through a trial set to begin this summer, the companies will then explore how installations can reduce energy supply costs and support the electricity grid.

VPPs can be used to access revenue streams from the grid and network operators by providing flexibility services from demand side response. Tribe will be able to integrate assets within the home together, and then use machine learning to automatically respond to signals from Pure Planet, for example charging or discharging the battery storage system.

By partnering with Lightsource Labs, Pure Planet is able to offer its members next generation technology to deploy solar and battery storage, helping to reduce energy bills and their carbon footprints said Andrew Ralston, Pure Planet co-founder and CEO.

“This new service and others we are pioneering will supercharge the speed at which we reach our next million [customers] by helping people manage their energy better by giving them all the information they need to reduce their emissions.”

Following the initial trial, the companies are looking to scale up the offer from 2022, with a target of deploying 1MW of flexible capacity over the next 24 months.

This partnership of the two bp backed businesses, follows Lightsource Labs teaming up with Huawei and Midsummer to offer a fully integrated solar, battery and energy management solution that includes Tribe, earlier this month.

Lightsource Labs also signed its first commercial partnerships this months, and is set to deliver local flexibility using its VPP to UK Power Networks and Western Power Distribution.