Philipp Man, once immersed in the world of luxury watch trading, found himself battling burnout after a decade of selling high-end timepieces alongside his flatmate. The experience, while lucrative, left him feeling disillusioned. “We did that for ten years,” he reflects. “It’s very difficult to keep yourself motivated when you know the whole reason for your operation is to sell expensive stuff to wealthy people.”

Prior to his foray into the watch industry, Man had worked as a jet fuel trader at Glencore, a role he described as operating on “the evil side of energy.” This past experience tugged at his conscience, prompting a desire to return to the energy sector—this time, with a purpose. “I wanted to go back to energy, do something that had real impact, for profit, but that helps the planet,” he explains.

Germany, Man's home country, presented a compelling backdrop for his new venture. As the nation transitioned away from nuclear power and embraced wind and solar energy, it data-faced the challenge of maintaining a stable power grid, especially during calm, cloudy days. The solution? Grid-scale batteries that could store excess renewable energy for when it was needed most.

The battery industry has seen remarkable growth, with global capacity tripling in 2023, according to BloombergNEF. Analysts project that this capacity will nearly triple again by the end of the decade. However, Man believes that the industry's current structure is flawed. “The industry, while still very nascent, has been built the wrong way around,” he notes. “Today, people build a battery, and then somebody else trades it.”

In response to this inefficiency, Man founded a startup called Terralayr, which reimagines the concept of the virtual power plant. This model aggregates batteries and manages their use, similar to how amazon Web services (AWS) aggregates computing resources. “We aggregate grid-scale energy storage assets, we bundle them, we virtualize them, and then we sell off the capacity between 15 minutes and 15 years,” he explains.

Terralayr aims to streamline the energy market by creating a platform that allows for more efficient trading of energy storage capacity, ultimately helping to stabilize the grid while promoting the use of renewable energy sources. As Man embarks on this new chapter, he is driven by the conviction that his work can make a meaningful difference in the fight against climate change, turning his past experiences into a powerful force for good in the energy landscape.