Great British Energy has announced its first major solar investment, leading an £8.875m funding round for British renewable heat technology company Naked Energy that will support the creation of a new UK manufacturing facility and hundreds of jobs.
The investment, announced today, forms part of Naked Energy’s £27m Series B funding round. Great British Energy is contributing £7.5m through its Energy Engineered in the UK programme, with existing investor Barclays Climate Ventures also participating.
The funding will enable Naked Energy to establish a new automated manufacturing facility in the UK, bringing production of its Virtu solar-thermal and photovoltaic-thermal (PVT) technology in-house. The company said the site is expected to create up to 40 skilled manufacturing jobs directly, alongside around 100 indirect roles in the wider supply chain. The location of the facility has yet to be confirmed.
Naked Energy’s Virtu technology is designed to help commercial and industrial organisations reduce their reliance on natural gas by generating renewable heat at the point of use. The technology is already deployed at several high-profile UK sites, including the British Library and the All England Lawn Tennis Club at Wimbledon.
The investment comes as industry continues to seek practical solutions for decarbonising industrial and commercial heat, one of the most challenging aspects of achieving the UK’s net zero ambitions. While heat pumps are suitable for many applications, certain industrial processes and commercial buildings require higher-temperature heat that can be difficult to electrify efficiently.
By producing renewable heat directly, Naked Energy says its technology can reduce gas consumption without placing additional demand on the electricity grid, while helping organisations manage exposure to volatile energy prices.
In addition to expanding manufacturing capacity, Great British Energy and Naked Energy will explore opportunities to deploy the technology across suitable public sector buildings. The organisations will also investigate financing models aimed at reducing the upfront investment required for organisations adopting renewable heat systems.
Cutting our reliance on gas is one of the biggest challenges we face, both for energy security and for keeping bills down. Naked Energy has developed a technology that tackles this head on and when you see it working at iconic UK institutions like the British Library and Wimbledon, you understand what is possible.
At Great British Energy we are backing UK innovators like Naked Energy and helping to create skilled jobs. Through our Energy Engineered in the UK programme we are helping them to manufacture here at home and go further, faster.
Dan McGrail, CEO of Great British Energy
The investment reflects the government’s ambition to strengthen domestic clean energy supply chains while supporting UK manufacturing and exports.
Energy Secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh said: “Homegrown, clean power is an opportunity to reindustrialise Britain as we’re backing UK supply chains to help deliver the energy transition.
“Great British Energy is supporting well-paid manufacturing jobs for communities, while providing cheaper and secure energy for households and businesses.”
The new manufacturing facility is expected to reduce production costs as Naked Energy scales its operations to meet growing domestic and international demand for renewable heat technologies.
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