Charting the route to net zero - Meet our new Head of Energy Storage & Renewables
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Meet Dean Callow, our new appointment as Head of Energy Storage & Renewables here at Dale Power Solutions.
Meet Dean Callow, our new appointment as Head of Energy Storage & Renewables here at Dale Power Solutions.
Joining us in early June 2024, Dean is a passionate innovator, bringing with him a wealth of experience in the energy sector.
Dean shares our vision of the future of battery energy storage: Not only does it have the potential to dramatically reduce energy bills. It’s also going to play a vital role in helping businesses meet their net zero CO2 emissions targets by 2050.
We caught up with Dean to ask him about his plans for his new role.
He also shared his insights into the transformation our Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) bring to businesses. Not only in terms of cost savings, but also the huge benefits BESS can bring in terms of environmental impact.
“When I left school I did a modern apprenticeship in electrical engineering, which led me to start my own business when I was just 20 years old.
In 2016, I got the opportunity to join a large renewables company. My job was to build a team to deliver their electrical contracts projects. We managed to take that company from a turnover of a million pounds per year to over a million pounds per month.
This formed the beginnings of my interest in battery energy storage. At the time it was an emerging technology. But I could see its huge potential.
So, in 2017 I visited manufacturers of battery technology in Germany, Sweden and Spain to conduct my own market research.
At the time, the main focus for a lot of these businesses was on batteries for electric vehicles. But I felt that there would be a strong market for storage, offering huge potential energy bill savings for end users.
Although a lot of these manufacturers disagreed with me, my suspicions were validated when I returned to the UK. Through my research I became aware that the National Grid had brought in capacity market contracts in 2016, which introduced the first battery storage at utility scale.
I then found that around 16 companies had bid in these capacity market auctions. And of those 16 businesses, 95% of them were brand new start ups.
This lit a fire under me. I was really excited about working more in the renewables sector. So, I joined an established owner operator in 2018 as a senior project manager. Within four months, I was promoted to Head of Connections, overseeing all the battery storage and grid connections portfolios.
From there, I was headhunted to a market leading battery storage integrator in 2020 as Director of Project Delivery, designing and delivering large scale battery storage projects.”
“Dale has a long, rich history in engineering and power generation. The company has been around for almost 90 years. It’s survived world wars, recessions, pandemics and global economic turmoil.
I felt it had a really strong foundation, and that stability, to offer market leading battery storage solutions.
My knowledge and experience in delivering battery storage projects means I can help develop and grow this area of the business.
Although this is a relatively new branch of the business for Dale, the company has the infrastructure and expertise to make a huge success of it. Which is not something that can be said for some of the much younger businesses in the sector.
I like the fact that Dale offers stability for customers. We’ve got a strong history of making customer satisfaction our top priority.”
“So many things make Dale the best choice for customers looking to reduce their bills and carbon footprint. The fact that Dale has been around for almost nine decades means we have built up a UK-wide team of expert engineers. We have more than 80 field service engineers nationwide. Ready to be on site with you within a maximum of four hours.
We have a really strong service and maintenance division. With us, customers have that extra level of reassurance. Not only can we design and construct the project, we can also maintain it for its entire lifetime.
Dale also offers a really safe option for customers wanting a BESS. There are a lot of concerns and scare stories about batteries catching fire. So we’ve done robust due diligence on our supply chain. That has meant choosing the right partners so we can offer best in class technology to our customers.
Our battery energy storage technology has the best fire detection and prevention. It also has the best energy density, to bring customers the most amount of electricity stored per square foot.
With Dale, it’s a full, turnkey solution for customers. We bring them not only the DC product, but also the full AC mechanical, electrical engineering and construction. As well as the civil design and construction. Plus we offer unmatched aftercare and service and maintenance support.”
“I want to help large and medium organisations with high energy consumption to cut energy bills and reduce carbon footprints.
The country-wide target is to get to net zero by 2050. To achieve this, a lot of companies have to quickly find a way to significantly reduce their CO2 emissions.
For example, we’ve seen bill savings of up to 60% and reductions in CO2 emissions of up to 90%.
As we move towards more clean energy generation, we’ll see an increase in grid instability when compared to more traditional energy sources. The only thing that can counteract that instability is battery energy storage. It really is the future.
I’m excited to start rolling out BESS projects to customers, and playing a part in transforming their businesses.
“Find the right partner. That’s the key. Battery energy storage has the potential to save you huge amounts of money and significantly reduce your carbon footprint.
But not all battery energy storage systems are created equal. People need to be discerning when choosing the right partner.
Choose a BESS provider who can:
Support you through every stage of the process
Help identify risks and know how to mitigate them
Demonstrate a strong track record of delivering projects on time and within budget
Provide a safe, energy dense system with high performance criteria
Offer strong service and maintenance with a solid workforce of expert engineers.”
“It’s here to stay. No other technology in the world can go from zero to full power in 150 milliseconds.
As more and more renewables get plugged into the grid, the more instability we have. And the only way to combat that and support the grid is through battery energy storage. It’s the only thing that can deliver instantaneous power
I believe that advances in battery technology are going to mirror the rapid progress we’ve seen in mobile phone tech over the past few decades. If you look back at mobile phone technology in the mid-2000s, the speed and acceleration of that technology to where we are today has been phenomenal.
And I can see a similar trajectory for battery technology. In the past five years, which is effectively how long battery storage as a stationary solution has existed, I’ve seen tremendous progress. I believe that momentum will continue to accelerate as we research and develop within the industry.”
To find out more about more about our BESS products and services, visit: https://www.dalepowersolutions.com/products/battery-energy-storage-systems, email us at hello@dalepowersolutions.com, or call us on +44 (0)330 999 3000.