CEO of up-and-coming startup with a New Year’s wish for Aarhus Municipality: “If we can break ground in 2025, we won’t complain”

Around 650 local business people and leaders of cultural institutions were invited to the annual New Year Briefing at Aarhus City Hall on Monday morning. Here they discussed visions for the future and gave an insight into the plans for 2025. They talked about international recruitment to the city, expansion of the university campus area and gave a sneak preview of the latest investment in the art museum Aros.

And then there was talk of green transition. Aarhus Municipality recently adopted a new climate agreement with the ambition to be climate neutral by 2030.

“In Aarhus, we have an ambition to be climate neutral by 2030. We are a rich city in a rich country, so we have a responsibility. But we also have many talented companies here in Aarhus, so I also see that there may be some business in it for the city’s companies,” said Mayor Anders Winnerskjold to the business leaders in attendance.

Lack of stable energy supply

However, this is easier said than done. If you want to fulfill the agreement to become climate neutral, it places great demands on the infrastructure. This is where we are currently facing a major challenge,” said Daniel Kappelgaard, CEO of the start-up Battman Energy, when he participated in a panel discussion on the climate-neutral ambition.

“The Danish security of supply is under enormous pressure. There is a huge imbalance in the grid and we are about to use an awful lot more power, and this power comes from energy sources that we don’t quite know when they will produce. This creates some balance challenges,” said Daniel Kappelgaard.

The up-and-coming startup Battman Energy is developing large-scale battery farms for future energy storage. This allows large amounts of power to be charged to batteries when production is high – and discharged again for consumption when production is low. In just two years, the Aarhus startup has grown to a team of 25 employees and won the Startup of the Year award at the Aarhus Investor Summit this year.

A New Year’s wish from Battman

Thus, Daniel Kappelgaard sees local startups like Battman Energy as a crucial part of the solution to the green transition.

“We need to be able to rely on the form of energy we have. Across large parts of society and Danish industries, if you dare to convert processes to electricity, you also need to be able to rely on it. That’s where battery systems come in and create stability,” he said.

That’s why he also had a New Year’s wish for the municipality.

“We have a small project proposal for a large battery plant in Aarhus Municipality. If we can break ground for it in 2025, we won’t complain,” said Daniel Kappelgaard from Battman Energy.

Indlægget CEO of up-and-coming startup with a New Year’s wish for Aarhus Municipality: “If we can break ground in 2025, we won’t complain” blev først udgivet på TechSavvy.