Every household is a power plant: How an energy startup wants to connect Germany

Every household is a power plant
How an energy startup wants to network Germany

December 13, 2023, 9:00 a.m

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Hundreds of companies in Germany earn their money from renewable energies. Synergies often fail to materialize. The energy startup 1Komma5 Grad wants to connect households with each other. Manager Sophia Rödiger explains how this can help companies in the ntv podcast “So techt Deutschland”.

Companies and consumers do not know what will happen next with the energy transition. Orders for heat pumps have collapsed. Sophia Rödiger from the energy startup 1Komma5 Grad assesses the situation as “a big chaos” in the ntv podcast “So techt Deutschland”.

The Hamburg startup has developed a “master plan with three chapters,” reports marketing director Rödiger. The three steps include rethinking and digitizing the value chain. “Step number two is the intelligence that we have to breathe into the whole thing,” explains Rödiger. This would mean, for example, that the heat pump speaks to the solar system.

In this context, 1Komma5 Grad sees itself as a technology platform for energy, says the manager. To do this, customers receive a small device installed that is responsible for networking and controlling energy consumption. Then self-consumption should be optimized so that consumers either use the electricity they produce themselves or buy electricity on the market. “Step number three is that we connect all households with each other and really talk about a green energy source that lives from wind and sun.” Rödiger explains the long-term vision that every household would then function like a decentralized power plant.

Own solar module factory

To achieve this, 1Komma5 Grad buys into craft companies on the market. “We are looking for the biggest ones in the market who already have expertise, who have been doing the whole thing for a few years and have built it up and who have the entrepreneurial spirit,” says Rödiger. With the help of the startup, some companies have already gone from having 30 to 130 employees, adds the marketing director.

According to one, the startup founded by the former Tesla Germany boss, Philipp Schröder, wants to start next year Handelsblatt report produce solar modules ourselves. The company wants to expand production at the factory in East Germany to up to five gigawatts by 2030.