GridDuck is looking back, looking forward and talking about all things new years!

The Year in Review

2021 has been quite a year. Across the globe, we’ve seen on-going supply chain issues, the Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan, a growing climate crisis and of course, the ever-present COVID-19 pandemic. 

2021 has also brought a new U.S. President in the way of Joe Biden, vast vaccine roll-out and the Italian UEFA victory. We’ve witnessed the start of Tokyo’s postponed 2020 Olympic Games alongside the reopening of night clubs and large events in the wake of COVID-19. 2021 has been a year filled with enormous progress, hope and resilience, alongside many new and complex problems in the realms of healthcare, politics and economics. 

Perhaps most pressingly for us and many of our partners and clients, 2021 has been an extremely eventful year in the world of energy and climate change. The collapse of 27  energy suppliers since the start of August brings considerable concern to the wider industry and numerous sectors reliant upon fluctuating wholesale prices. The crisis is attributable to several economic and geographical factors, described by one source as a “perfect storm” of gas storage shortages; cold European weather; delays to the Gas Nord Stream 2; driver shortages; national price caps and other global political factors. 

Perhaps unsurprisingly, 2021 has brought many sobering landmark events in the fight against -and consequences of- climate change across the globe. We’ve seen the UN Report declaring a code red for human driven global heating, alongside flooding across 3 continents, heatwaves and yet more alarming statistics surrounding our emissions.

However, there have been equally encouraging headlines across energy and climate change too, with 2021 furthering the potential of renewable energy generation as the cheapest option for new generation projects. Alongside this, the USA rejoined the Paris Agreement, whilst this year’s COP26 brought a 450 firm Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero and India’s commitment to source half its electricity from renewables by 2030. Furthermore, the uptake of electric vehicles has also grown exponentially in 2021, with electric vehicle sales up 80% from last year. 

From the disparaging to the hopeful headlines, it is clear that 2021 marks yet another crucial moment in the history of climate action and the clean energy transition.

GridDuck in 2021

Here at GridDuck, 2021 has been equally eventful. Despite some new challenges in technology development and logistics, as well as the ongoing disruptions of COVID-19 and home-working, our news is thankfully more optimistic on the whole.

2021 has brought GridDuck four new hires; a new office overlooking both Highbury Fields and the Shard and our recent expansion into gas and water metering. We were especially grateful for the opportunity to attend Restaurant and Bar Tech Live 2021 and EMEX 2021, speaking at the latter event in front of our largest ever audience. 

Alongside this, we have been excited about our advancement in the hospitality industry, with a new case study demonstrating a 28% saving within a London cocktail bar; new clients and a range of new content including free resources and an exclusive discussion with the Sustainable Restaurant Association. 2021 was also the year that GridDuck branched out into Youtube, and we look forward to posting more videos and other content throughout 2022.

We were also able to help many farms save energy by submetering their buildings and using automation. In fact, we launched a one-of-a-kind pilot project with a farm in Herefordshire to explore the potential of advanced automation to balance on-site renewables. GridDuck used temperature sensors to monitor temperature inside four cold stores, allowing the apples to warm up to a maximum temperature when solar energy is at its lowest (at nighttime) and cooling the apples down to a minimum temperature when the most solar is available. By using the thermal capacity of the apples to help keep the cold stores within a set temperature range, GridDuck essentially turned the fruits into one large thermal battery. This was an enormously exciting opportunity for our team, and a big step towards 100% renewable farming. To learn more about our work in the agricultural sector, please visit gridduck.com/sectors/agriculture-horticulture.

We were also excited to help many factories in 2021 too. Often factories cannot identify how much energy each machine consumes, and at what time. By tracking each machine in real time, they can compare the energy consumption patterns to their shift patterns, and spot energy waste. To learn more about our work in this sector, visit: gridduck.com/sectors/manufacturing.

Looking Forward

As we enter the new year, GridDuck is excited to see further developments in the global energy transition and, of course, to save businesses even more in carbon emissions and energy costs through intelligent metering and automation. In fact, we are beginning the first steps into our 2022 energy-saving journey by seeking new investors in a bridge raise next February. We relish the opportunity to welcome new investors in clean energy innovation and IoT aboard GridDuck’s development, and to expand the potential of our technology even further. 

We are excited to gain greater success with gas and water metering and help more businesses with free resources, such as posters, checklists, blog content and industry tips. We are also looking forward to continuing our trend of growing with larger clients and refining our brand further with new innovations and features. 

With the rising uptake of electric vehicles and more innovation than ever before, we hope that GridDuck can open up new possibilities for those businesses investing in low carbon technology. Following the release of our Advanced Rules, we believe firmly in the potential of our technology to provide a highly effective solution for balancing on-site renewable energy generation. 

Just as we have discussed in several articles throughout the year, GridDuck strongly believes that UK businesses possess the will to create positive change and that our role is simply to make it easy for them. As we look towards another year, we aim to keep that mission central to everything we do, and spread this message as far as possible. 

Overall, we are optimistic about the future and the positive change 2022 will bring. We have seen plenty to be encouraged by this year and relish the opportunity to play part in even greater change. 

To all of our readers, clients and partners, GridDuck would like to thank you for your support and wish you a fantastic new year. 

For all those looking to make 2022 a more sustainable and cost effective business year, then why not start with a short meeting about how GridDuck could help your company or clients? To schedule your 15 minute appointment in January now, please use Calendly.