Use electricity smartly and protect the climate with the YOULE app

How can you save CO2 in your everyday life, make the energy system more effective and reduce your own energy costs? By using the YOULE App! The YOULE app shows how much renewable energy is available in the grid right now and in the next 24 hours and helps you adapt your own energy consumption to the availability of green electricity. With the YOULE app, GP JOULE has developed a solution that motivates conscious electricity consumption and thus contributes to the energy turnaround in Germany.

The idea behind smart electricity consumption isn’t new. Wind power pioneer Karl-Heinz "Kuddel" Hansen, who connected one of Germany's first wind turbines to the grid in Reußenköge in 1983, ensured that his family could adapt how much electricity they consumped to how much they generated themselves. In order to achieve this he installed an "electricity traffic light" in his kitchen: When the wind was blowing, the traffic light turned green. Now the electronic household appliances could be operated with self-generated green electricity. When there was no wind, the traffic lights were red. This was the signal to save electricity. The YOULE app has now applied this “traffic light” principle to the whole of Germany. With the YOULE app, we can consume electricity more consciously and integrate active climate protection into our everyday lives.

In order for the energy turnaround to succeed, we need to start at both ends: with generating renewable energies - and how we use them. This requires that we adapt our electricity consumption - as best we can - to the volatile electricity production with wind and solar power. Our energy system is still very inefficient, we are now wasting around six terawatt hours (6,000,000,000 kWh) of green electricity per year. And this will become much more in the future if we do not adapt how we consume electrictiy to how we generate it.

The new YOULE app recommends to consumers when it is sensible to use a lot of electricity and when to use as little as possible based on the proportion of green electricity in the power grid. If we wash our laundry or charge EV when there is a lot of electricity from renewable energies in the grid, a positive domino effect sets in: Solar and wind power plants do not have to be shut down and no gas-fired power plant has to be ramped up. CO2 emissions are reduced. In the long term, grid fees will fall and with them electricity costs.

How does using the YOULE app help protect the climate?

If, for example, a lot of green electricity is produced in the north of Germany, it cannot always be transported: The existing electricity grid does not have enough capacity. Then wind and solar power plants that are located ahead of this grid bottleneck will be deactivated. The renewable energy that could actually be produced is being thrown away so to speak. Behind the grid bottleneck, however, a power plant must be ramped up at the same time in order to feed in more electricity and keep the total amount of electricity in the grid stable.

These interventions in electricity generation are called redispatch. All consumers pay the costs of such redispatch measures by paying the grid fees. And the climate suffers too, because the power plants that are ramped up during grid bottlenecks often burn natural gas.

Use green electricity in a smarter way with the YOULE app

The YOULE app empowers users to manage their electricity consumption sensibly: The Green Power Outlook shows you how high the percentage of green power is in the grid every hour. Via push notification, the app provides live recommendations and outlooks on the most suitable times to consume electricity. In the majority of the grid area, it is even possible to see concrete messages about renewable energy plants that have been deactivated. The people who adapt their electricity consumption to these messages use existing resources, prevent grid bottlenecks and contribute to the energy turnaround. In addition, the YOULE app provides regular energy news and tips.

"Most rooftop solar operators turn on their dishwasher or dryer when the sun is shining because it simply makes sense to use the most electricity when it is being produced. With the YOULE app, everyone, even those who do not own a home or without a rooftop system in their home, can now adapt their electricity consumption to the production of green electricity in Germany or in their region. Soon we will also offer the corresponding electricity tariffs, which will make it financially worthwhile to join in", says Ove Petersen, CEO and co-founder of GP JOULE, "our vision is '100% renewable energy for all' - and YOULE is the app for everyone. Everyone can join in, everyone together can drive the energy turnaround by making the energy system more efficient."

Download YOULE now

The YOULE app is now available in the App Store and the Google Play Store: https://youle-app.de/download

GP JOULE at the HANNOVER MESSE 2023

Visit us at the HANNOVER MESSE trade fair 2023: GP JOULE shows how a sustainable transformation towards 100% renewable energy works for everyone at stand D45 in hall 12. Visit us from 17 to 21 April and find out how we supply companies, communities and entire regions  with electricity, heat, mobility and hydrogen - sustainably and safely. TOGETHER we can make the energy transition happen - fully integrated, regionally and in practice. Always 100% renewable.

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About GP Joule
As an integrated energy supplier, GP JOULE is active in all areas of the energy value chain: from generating to using energy, from consulting to financing and project planning to construction and service. GP JOULE produces and markets wind and solar power, green hydrogen and heat and makes use of it where it is most effective: in electric and hydrogen-based mobility, in households and in industry. GP JOULE has been shaping the future of energy in Europe from Germany since 2009. With the aim of delivering a secure, independent and sustainable supply of energy. 100 % renewable energy for all.

The company's main locations are in Buttenwiesen, in the district of Dillingen, and in Reußenköge in North Frisia, where the founders and former fellow students Heinrich Gärtner and Ove Petersen each took over their parents' farms after studying agricultural engineering and expanded them with company offices. Around 600 people work for the medium-sized group of companies in Germany, Europe and North America.

GP JOULE was awarded the German Mobility Prize 2022 for the hydrogen mobility project eFarm.

Press contact
Jürn Kruse
Corporate Communications
GP JOULE Gruppe
j.kruse@gp-joule.de 
Tel. +49 (0) 4671-6074-213
Mobil +49 (0) 160-1540265
GP JOULE GmbH     Cecilienkoog 16  •  25821 Reußenköge  •  www.gp-joule.de