Episode
Why Half the Country Can't Access Clean Energy, And What’s Changing | Rob Hallifax
- Podcast
- WHY DESIGN?
- Published
- Apr 1, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 3983
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Summary
What if the biggest gap in the clean energy transition isn't technology or politics, but simply who the products were designed for ? In this episode of Why Design, Rob Hallifax shares the belief that sits at the heart of his work: that half the country has been left behind by clean energy, and that the right physical product can change that. Rob is co-founder of Windfall Energy, a company building a compact home battery specifically for renters and flat-dwellers, the people for whom solar panels, heat pumps and big home batteries have never been a realistic option. Rather than building another clean tech product for homeowners with garages and south-facing roofs, Rob and his co-founder designed something different: a 2.5 kWh battery that orders online, arrives by courier, and automatically charges on cheap overnight electricity to power your home during expensive peak hours. That decision, to start with who was excluded rather than who already had options, led to Bethnal Green Ventures backing the company, conversations with major UK energy providers, and a pre-order campaign launching in early 2025. This conversation isn't about home energy storage. It's about who clean technology is designed for, and who it quietly ignores. This conversation isn't about Kickstarter tactics. It's about what a decade of crowdfunding campaigns teaches you about making products people actually want. Join the Why Design community -> teamkodu.com/whydesign 6c. What You'll Learn Why roughly half of UK homes are structurally excluded from every clean energy product on the market, and what it takes to build for that gap. How the economics of battery cells and electricity pricing have only recently made a product like Windfall viable, and why timing matters as much as the idea itself. Why R…