To achieve its target of becoming carbon neutral by 2045, Germany has expanded renewable energy sources in the country and made access to them easier for more than 83 million citizens and residents.
Reflecting this recent trend, the country’s startup sector has seen significant growth in climate tech companies, with more than 10% of them classified as “unicorns,” or those with valuations of more than $1 billion.
Inspired by the Paris Climate Agreement, which calls for limiting the rise in global temperature this century to 2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels, while pursuing the means to limit the increase to 1.5 degrees, Hamburg-based 1KOMMA5° is on a mission to, in the words of CEO Philipp Schröder, “make as many buildings carbon-neutral as quickly as possible.”
In a world where “everyone can live on wind and sunlight forever for free,” 1KOMMA5° said it will invest several millions of dollars to set up a team and build an R&D facility in Berlin. At the heart of its work is Heartbeat, a proprietary IoT device that manages energy consumption and gives users the biggest savings possible.
By 2024, 1KOMMA5° wants to make Heartbeat compatible with existing systems to ensure that smart energy management is accessible to everyone, creating a big, virtual, and decentralized power plant that interconnects all devices and, by extension, the energy market.
To make buildings carbon-neutral, Heartbeat will make it easier for users to connect their mobility, heating, and electrical appliances and devices to renewable energy sources.
In the automobile sector, 1KOMMA5° said it partnered with Porsche to integrate Heartbeat with the state of charge and arrival data of the all-electric model Taycan. According to 1KOMMA5° CTO Barbara Wittenberg connected systems are a basic necessity and the car battery will be the energy market’s most relevant asset.
In an interview with PV Magazine Australia, Schröder highlighted 1KOMMA5°'s commitment to ensuring the sustainability of its supply chain, saying the solar panels used in Germany are made of polysilicon, which has reduced its carbon emissions by at least an estimated 50%.
To promote green energy beyond Germany, 1KOMMA5° has set up operations in Sweden, Finland and Australia.
