The ‘EnergyFish’ Swarm: Germany Launches the World’s First ‘Invisible’ Power Plant 

Germany is testing the world’s first “invisible power plant”, distributed energy in a network of small, intelligent energy-producing units called EnergyFish. 

Each EnergyFish can generate, store, and transfer energy locally via solar panels or batteries, or through small-scale renewable sources, while remaining physically unnoticeable to buildings and infrastructure.

Because of this, the result is an energy system that is all over the place, while still being virtually invisible

How the EnergyFish System Works

The EnergyFish concept is based on the coordination of energy as opposed to the size of energy sources. Individual EnergyFish function independently while they are connected through intelligent software to balance supply and demand on an instantaneous basis.

• Energy is drawn from numerous nodes at once during times of peak demand.
• During times of lower demand, the excess energy will either be stored or redirected.
• Renewable energy sources are seamlessly integrated throughout the EnergyFish network.

The result is a virtual power plant where thousands of small energy providers act like one large energy source, without requiring massive, centralised power-generating facilities.

Why This Model Is a Breakthrough

This provides several different benefits:

• Reduces loss in transmission of power
• Creates more resilient systems since failure of any single source will not bring the entire system down
• Better opportunity to add renewable energy sources
• Reduced visual and environmental effects

In addition, as the EnergyFish power generation and distribution system is situated amongst existing urban development, it will be, by nature, a very “invisible” energy source but will still provide significant kilowatt-hours of energy to electricity consumers.

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What This Means for the Future of Energy

EnergyFish is an indication of a much larger trend toward the development of Distributed Intelligence (DI) energy systems that incorporate decentralised, technologically advanced approaches to meeting society’s growing electricity needs as populations continue to rapidly expand and electricity consumption increases. Currently, designing traditional energy systems that rely solely on huge energy-producing facilities creates less efficiency and a single point of failure based on the utility power supply/power generation infrastructure that interties those large facilities so energy can be delivered to end-use consumers.

If successful, EnergyFish can be utilized globally by other nations to change the way cities produce and consume electricity — the world will transition from large, centralised power generation/distribution infrastructures to city-wide, interconnected power generation/distribution systems.

Final Words

Germany’s EnergyFish project is evidence that the future of energy does not have to be about larger, but rather, smarter and distributed.

Instead of developing larger electricity generation facilities, converting entire cities into electricity-producing facilities could be the next step.

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