Swiss startup, Power-Blox, has developed a new technology that mimics complex systems in nature to create fully autonomous power grids anywhere in the world.  Using a technology called Swarm Power, Power-Blox allows anyone to create a 'plug and power' energy grid that is completely autonomous, scalable, and decentralized, while requiring no management, configuration or maintenance.  The system is regarded as a major breakthrough in energy technology because anyone can create a Swarm Grid to power a school, hospital or an entire town simply by adding additional Power-Blox to the system. 

Swarm Power - Mimicking Nature's Most Complex Systems

Swarm technology is based upon nature's approach towards organizing complex structures in a fully decentralized way.  In a swarm, the most complex systems are governed by a simple set of rules and that are acted upon without the need for centralized decision making.  As the individual entities within the swarm follow this set of rules they interact with one another without knowledge of the swarm's behaviour, giving rise to an 'intelligent' global behaviour for the entire system.

Power-Blox has taken this concept and applied it to a power grid.  With Swarm Power, the power generation, storage and distribution are done with a fully decentralized architecture to manage fluctuating current, as opposed to a smart grid which needs a centralized architecture. The energy in the swarm is stored in nodes and every component of the grid learns how to adapt to the current state of the grid by observing the grid parameters and adapting its behavior with the use of artificial intelligence.

Power-Blox 'Plug and Power' Scalable Technology

The Power-Blox 200 series are individual, intelligent energy cubes with an integrated battery. Each cube provides 200 Watts of alternating current and can provide power for lighting, one refrigerator, a television and mobile phone / laptop charging.  The cubes can be powered by an optionally provided solar unit or from any external source (such as solar, wind, hydrothermal, biomass, or a generator etc). Power-Blox acts as a universal energy interface and can be combined with any external energy source or storage device.  

When a minimum of 2 Power-Blox are combined, proprietary algorithms enable the system to adapt and react with swarm intelligence, creating a Swarm Grid that can provide sustainable and regulated power for schools, hospitals, telecommunications infrastructure, agricultural equipment, remote tourist resorts, events / festivals, disaster relief, and up to entire villages and towns. 

The scalability of Power-Blox is essentially limitless due to the modular architecture of the system. Anyone can scale energy storage and production by simply incorporating additional units into the system as energy requirements increase. Additionally, the cubes are completely 'Plug and Power' and don't require any special configuration, engineering, or expertise when adding additional modules to the system.

Market Perspective

In developing countries, nearly $27 billion is spent annually on lighting and mobile-phone charging technologies with a $3.1 billion market opportunity for the off-grid solar industry by 2020, according to Bloomberg's Off-Grid Solar Market Trends Report 2016.  In industrialized countries, the off-grid market will be a $23 billion opportunity by 2024.

Compared with other independent energy systems:

• Solar home systems have a small power range, a short service life, and cannot be expanded.

• Diesel generators create strong pollution and dependencies for fuel supply with high operation costs.

• Micro-grid systems present high initial costs, limited opportunities for expansion and need complex engineering and installation. 

• Additionally, a failure of a critical component in any of these systems will shut down the whole grid.

Compared with 'Smart Grid' technology, a Power-Blox Swarm Grid offers the same 'smart distribution,' load balancing, and energy management, but requires no centralized architecture, software or configuration.  It is simply 'plug and power.'

Power-Blox's technology has not only the potential to change how off-grids are built and operated, but could change the way conventional power grids work too. As the amount of available renewable energy increases, the design of today's public grids are failing to tap the full potential of renewable energy. Their approach could address the challenges of public grids in a fundamental way: On one hand, it removes the need for a centralized architecture and control; On the other hand, it provides power storage capabilities inside the grid, as well as in the 'last mile of the grid.'

Power-Blox has been awarded the Axpo Energy Award 2014, the UN National Energy Globe Award of Tanzania 2015, and is a top 10 Finalist for the InterSolar 2017 Award next month in Munich. The company is based in Brugg, Switzerland, and recently completed their second investment round. 

Power-Blox | www.power-blox.com