Discover CAM Scale-Up UK through Gamma Energy
Jose Contreras outlines Gamma Energy’s experience participating in the CAM Scale-Up UK Programme.
Learn more about their speciality, the testing process and the results
Gamma Energy and the Zenzic CAM Scale-Up UK programme
Working in renewable generation projects, self-supply, energy management for critical infrastructure, energy efficiency and on or off grid storage
DACA group, the parent company of Gamma Energy, are an engineering services company set up in 2002 in in Madrid, Spain with around 300 employees across the group, who arrived in the UK in 2013.
They are at the forefront of renewable energy initiatives, with a strong focus on green energy asset development. Their expertise spans a wide spectrum including solar parks, battery storage, mini grids, electric vehicle charging infrastructure and lately autonomous vehicles.
As the world transitions towards autonomous mobility, Gamma Energy recognizes the critical role of electric vehicles in this evolution. With the majority of autonomous vehicles expected to be electric, the demand for reliable charging infrastructure becomes paramount.
“That’s where we come in. If you have no autonomous charging solution, you cannot really call yourself autonomous. So we are aiming to deliver that solution so that we can truly call autonomy, autonomy.
So, when we looked at this initially, we looked into the market and said, “Can we buy this? Can we deliver this to the local authorities, to the private clients, to the different other stakeholders with whom we work?” and we found there simply isn’t anything out there today that does the job. And we’ve taken the approach that we’ll do it ourselves.”
Gamma have the largest rapid public charging network in Spain with more than 700 chargers on the ground. In the UK they are working with 11 local authorities in the UK through long term concession agreements, to deploy up to 700 public chargers, addressing the current infrastructure gap.
Transitioning to electric mobility presents a pivotal challenge: expanding the grid and deploying additional assets to accommodate the increasing demand for electricity.
Transitioning to electric mobility presents a pivotal challenge: expanding the grid and deploying additional assets to accommodate the increasing demand for electricity.
The need for widespread charging infrastructure, including infrastructure positioned conveniently in our streets, becomes evident.
It is also clear that the electric transition will not happen without the right support from the government, from local authorities, and from the corporate sector. There needs to be enough players out there in the corporate side that are passionate about this, that believe firmly in that transition and that are willing to invest in that transition, taking the appropriate risks.
The addressable market encompasses the entirety of the electric vehicle sector, spanning beyond electric and autonomous vehicles to include all electric vehicles in operation. This encompasses vehicles on the road, as well as entities like ports, airports, and various industrial settings, where electric mobility presents a clear opportunity.
According to Jose:
“It will play a very significant part of over the next 5 to 10 years, so we’re very engaged in that electric mobility transition. We also generate renewable energy, as part of some of our group companies. and we want fundamentally to transform the sector and ensure that transport is green.”
Gamma’s Testing Journey
Working with CAM Testbed UK to demonstrate that autonomous charging can be achieved
Gamma’s testing took place at HORIBA MIRA. The key task was to trial their prototype system to autonomously charge an autonomous vehicle, which was achieved without any human intervention. For Gamma this represented a milestone in the development of their system. They succeeded in charging at 30 amps, equivalent to 7 KW, which was the objective that they sought to achieve.
HORIBA MIRA provided Gamma with a unique array of resources crucial for their development efforts, including specialized testing tracks for vehicles, state-of-the-art workshops, and access to a range of world-renowned test bed facilities.
“We couldn’t have hoped for a better partner in terms of trying to develop our project. So the testbed has the tracks, for example, for, testing vehicles, it has the workshops, it has the it has the different simulation technologies that can be used.
It has a fantastic team of engineers with a lot of expertise in the sector and, and when you put all of those together, there really isn’t many other people out there that can compete in terms of the whole offering that Horiba Mira bring to the table. You can’t really put a value to accumulated expertise.”
What does success look like?
Gamma’s vision for the next decade is to maintain their leadership position in the electric vehicle charging market. They are currently at the initial stages of deploying the necessary infrastructure to support electric vehicle charging. Looking ahead, they anticipate the integration of autonomy into the transportation landscape, thereby incorporating autonomous charging into their infrastructure offerings.
Bringing this ambitious project to fruition poses undeniable challenges, yet Gamma is uniquely positioned to meet them head-on. Their expertise allows them to deliver innovative solutions to the market, optimizing every aspect of the value chain—from electricity generation to delivery. This involves meticulous optimization of time, location, and power capacity, coupled with close collaboration with energy generation, grid management, and vehicle integration, ensuring the most efficient delivery of energy possible.
“We are at an initial stage in the development of this technology and there’s a lot of work to do in front of us. But we also are at a point where we can see a definitive solution being in the market within the next 12 to 18 months.”
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