Maximise use of solar energy with ‘Tribe’
A new partnership between Lightsource Labs, a subsidiary of Lightsource bp, Huawei, and renewable energy solutions firm Midsummer, aims to help UK households to reduce energy costs by 20%.
The three companies will be integrating solar, battery energy storage and energy management solutions to increase consumer self-consumption and energy savings.
Huawei will offer its inverter and solar energy solution for integration with Lightsource Lab’s home energy management kit Tribe. Midsummer will distribute the integrated solution to its customers across the UK.
What is Tribe?
Tribe is a community of smart energy users who utilise an App to optimise energy flows within the home. The Hub and the App work in harmony to ensure you maximise use of the solar energy you’re generating and take advantage of low cost electricity available from the grid.
The Hub optimises your home’s major energy loads, like your battery system, your EV charge point and your air conditioning unit, making sure they’re always operating when energy is cheapest. The Hub diverts excess solar energy to significant loads to ensure you are utilising every last ray of sunshine that generates electricity for your home, while the App gives you complete visibility and control. The technology leverages weather data, consumer’s previous energy usage and generation data and data from utility companies to maximize onsite energy generation and usage.
Lightsource Labs will be working with Midsummer and utility companies including UK Power Networks and Western Power Distribution to expand grid flexibility using Tribe.
Ben Kott, CEO of Lightsource Labs, said: “With an increasing number of flexible loads in the home and the launch of innovative time-of-use tariffs, the opportunity to orchestrate and optimise connected devices to improve self-consumption and minimise energy bills is growing.”
Jamie Vaux, Commercial Director for Midsummer, comments: “We’re delighted to be partnering with Lightsource Labs on launching Tribe in the UK. Managing and optimising home energy flows is the key to making homeowners’ energy assets work for them, and something that they are looking for – especially if it can improve their savings and learn their needs.”
Michael Rae, Channel Director for Huawei, adds: “We are excited to be part of this innovative offering for UK solar customers as a result of the extensive interoperability testing which has been conducted by the R&D teams at Huawei and Lightsource Labs. Huawei’s One-Fits-All Residential Smart PV Solution comprises inverter, energy storage, optimiser, power sensor, etc. to provide up to 30% more energy yield, and equipped with AFCI (Arc Fault Circuit Interrupter) function to detect arc faults and shutdown the inverter in 0.5 seconds.”