Molly Webb is Founder of Energy Unlocked, an energy market accelerator focused on new market entrants achieving a low cost, renewable, resilient energy system, and Co-Founder of PeerCo, a platform which boosts carbon impact for businesses through digital Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (Molly on LinkedIn).
We cover (amongst many things!):
-How the Energy Unlocked cam out of Molly's work at the Climate Group, and her diagnosis of the challenges for innovating in energy.
-How Energy Unlocked is a market accelerator, not a business accelerator. Molly is focussing on the conditions that would make it possible for multiple start-ups to succeed.
-One of the methods Energy Unlimited uses is Open Innovation.
-Molly also uses a strategy approach called 'Problem Driven Iterative Adaptation' (PDIA).
-Relate the Energy Unlimited approach to the module's innovation typology.
-If the incentives in the energy market were there, then we'd be fast on our way to a sustainable future already.
-There has been a shift to government-led industrial strategy.
-The Carbon Flex project, which asked asked the question 'Are we investing in the right things at local level to decarbonise the grid faster?'.
-Part of accelerating a market is breaking new ground which is too risky for funding which wants a secure and certain return. Which makes it difficult!
-How understandings of the way energy markets work are very entrenched by how they happen to work now, rather than how they might work if you change the incentives.
-Addressing that inertia and entrenched situation requires exploring. Hence the need for Energy Unlocked.
-The importance of making sure the problem definition is not constrained by the understanding of what is currently possible.
-How important he demand side of the energy markets are, and how this is under-explored in policy, philanthropic funding and investment.
This is part of a series of interviews about innovation for sustainability conducted for the UCL Institute for Sustainable Resources, as a contribution to a module in this Masters. You can find out more about these interviews, and the module, here.
