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Next Kraftwerke was named a 2021 Global Cleantech 100 Company by Cleantech Group. The 100 companies on the list represent private, independent and for-profit companies, which contribute to a more digitized, de-carbonized and resource-efficient future.

Forstaubach, Hallstatt, Kainischtaun and Schallau - these are the names of the four Austrian hydroelectric power plants that will contribute their energy to the Virtual Power Plant from 2021. The operator of the small hydropower plants are the Austrian Bundesforste. Since 2006, they have been generating energy from water with small hydroelectric power plants. Currently, the Bundesforste operate eight such sustainable electricity producers - four of which Next Kraftwerke has now added to its pool.

Next Kraftwerke has reached another milestone: Since November 2020, 10,000 decentralized plants have been aggregated in the virtual power plant Next Pool. Operator Bernd Beitz brought the 10,000th plant into the company. The 525 kWp photovoltaic plant in the Rhineland-Palatinate town of Haßloch generates both electricity and adrenaline. This is because it supplies roller coasters and water attractions of the Holiday Park with electricity.

Next Kraftwerke and Toshiba Energy Systems & Solutions Corporation (Toshiba ESS) today announced the launch of their joint venture. “Next Kraftwerke Toshiba Corporation” is a Virtual Power Plant (VPP) as a service provider that enables third parties in Japan to set up their own VPP. 

During this year’s CHARGE Energy Branding conference, Next Kraftwerke was selected as the winner of the 2020 global CHARGE Award in the category „Best Product & Innovation Brand“ by a jury of industry experts. The CHARGE awards celebrate excellent brand strategy initiatives within the energy sector. 

The two cleantech companies, sonnen GmbH and Next Kraftwerke GmbH, have entered into a co-operation agreement for the supply of Frequency Containment Reserves (FCR). The initiative will provide the power grid with even more capacity from connected battery home storage systems as the companies will offer “reserve groups” to the ancillary services market with two megawatts in capacity each.

Aggregator Next Kraftwerke and Vehicle-to-Grid Integration Platform provider Jedlix started offering secondary reserve power (aFRR) to the Dutch grid using a pool of electric vehicles (EVs) since the beginning of August. Drivers of EVs indicate their charging preferences on the mobile app developed by Jedlix. Using fleet intelligence, the cars are then integrated into Next Kraftwerke’s Virtual Power Plant (VPP) and their flexibility is bid as aFRR power to the Dutch Transmission System Operator (TSO) TenneT.

Next Kraftwerke is among the ten companies which have been named the 2020 Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) Pioneers. With assistance from BNEF staff, an independent panel of industry experts selected the ten winners from a pool of well over a hundred applicants from 24 countries. The winners are pursuing opportunities in areas as diverse as advanced materials, distributed energy, industrial digitalization, intelligent mobility, metals, satellites, and energy storage.

The control system solution “NEMOCS” by Next Kraftwerke has won the Smarter E Award 2020 in the category “Smart Renewable Energy”. NEMOCS enables participants in the energy market to build their own virtual power plant.

Together with Solar WO Engineering GmbH as the constructor and 7C Solarparken AG as the operator, Next Kraftwerke has connected a floating photovoltaic (PV) system to the Virtual Power Plant (VPP) for the first time. The plant has a capacity of 729 kWp. It is integrated into the VPP via a protocol interface. Next Kraftwerke forecasts the plant's electricity production and then trades the electricity on the spot market of the electricity exchange.