Coffee is powerful on its own, but coffee brewed with clean on-site energy is even better. During DistribuTECH 2019, FreeWire Technologies teamed up with Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD), the nation’s sixth largest community-owned electric utility, to power Petite Rouge Cafe Camionette’s coffee truck right on the show floor using our battery-backed Mobi^® Gen. This stimulating conversation starter demonstrated just one application of the Mobi product line in action to power off-grid services—from food trucks to mobile EV charging—wherever, whenever.

The coffee truck generated a long line of eager attendees, and Mobi Gen easily kept up with the demand. Over the course of the three-day conference, the truck consumed just over half of the Mobi’s 80 kWh battery, running at peak loads of 11 kW during the busiest hours of operation and minimum loads of 100 W during idle periods. To serve an event like this, power would have typically been provided by a diesel generator, and the benefits are clear: Mobi Gen enabled quiet, clean indoor operation and offset 53 liters of diesel fuel, avoiding 143 kg of CO₂ emissions. That’s the equivalent emissions of 350 miles in a standard passenger car.

Some of the most rewarding moments from the event were the positive feedback from distinguished energy professionals on battery-powered technologies. Utilities and businesses alike are seeking flexible clean energy solutions that can be deployed anywhere, anytime to easily meet a variety of customer needs and open up new service opportunities.

Lupe Jimenez, Manager of Energy Research and Development at SMUD, noted, “The flexibility of FreeWire’s technology helps us enable early market transformation while testing out different use cases. Serving our community and increasing user engagement allows us to extend beyond the confines of the grid and reach more customers where and when they need power.” SMUD is currently testing our Mobi units in Sacramento and participated in a panel alongside FreeWire’s Ethan Sprague, VP of Sales, to discuss “Enabling Infrastructure Transition: Challenges and Opportunities”. During the panel, SMUD presented their holistic and integrated resource approach to decarbonization and how they’re evaluating the impact throughout the entire value chain from generation to consumption. As clean, distributed energy options become mainstream, end users can access new energy services through their local utility that improve quality of life.

If you have any suggestions on what fun service you’d like us to power at next year’s conference, drop us a line at info@freewire.com or follow us on Twitter. We look forward to seeing you at next year’s DistribuTECH conference in San Antonio!