Meet Morten Bülow, the Dane set to drive Heatcube to its next breakthrough in industrial energy storage.
On a cold November day in 1963, the Norwegian Foreign Minister met his Danish counterpart to discuss naval borders. Legend has it the Norwegians had a plan—a cup of coffee and a bottle of whisky tucked away to steer the conversation. By the end of the night, Norway had secured rights to what would become an oil goldmine, leaving Denmark with little more than crumbs.
But Denmark’s loss turned into its greatest strength. With no oil to rely on, the country was forced to innovate, eventually becoming a global leader in wind energy—a pivotal moment that reshaped its future.
Also, it meant a young Danish marine engineer would soon find himself managing wind turbines … in Ireland.
From wind to the next big renewable innovation
You might say the whisky bottle story is emblematic of how unexpected twists can shape the future. It mirrors the journey of Morten Bülow—Kyoto Group’s new CEO. Right now, he’s taking on a challenge with similar stakes: He’s leading a company poised to revolutionize industrial process heat with its thermal batteries.
Yes, revolutionize. For Morten Bülow, even that word feels like an understatement.
- At heart, I’m an engineer, you know. Solving the riddle of the energy transition is the most important thing. I don't like to speak just to speak. I like to convey a message. And that message is that we’re at a tipping point where industries can no longer afford to wait. I guess you could say my job with Kyoto Group is to make decarbonization practical, not just idealistic.
Originally a marine engineer, Morten reflects with a sense of astonishment on how far the wind energy sector has come from its early days when he describes it as ‘very much immature’. When he joined wind energy in Denmark back in the ‘90s, he came from a world where the pressure was immense—and the solutions needed to be immediate.
– On ships, there’s nobody else to call if things stop working. As a marine engineer, it’s your job to keep things running. Maintain things. Keep it operating. Either you fix it, or it stays broken.
This ‘all-hands-on-deck’ mentality shaped his approach to solving problems and managing complexity—skills he carried with him. He soon found himself as a technician installing wind turbines in Ireland—supposed to stay for a couple of months, only to find himself staying for two and a half years. He was at the forefront of an industry that few took seriously at the time. Especially true for grid operators used to working with big power plants.
- I still remember sitting down with grid operators, he says - We were young and naive, and one of us asked: ‘How about the wind turbines, how do you incorporate them into the grid?’ The operator just looked at us and said: “Yeah, well, you know, we just have the turbines cut out whenever there’s a grid disturbance and then they can come online again whenever we’re done stabilizing the grid. They’re never going to play a significant role’.
Morten Bülow laughs and then reflects on how far the industry has come. How professionalized it has become. And how big, both economically and in a more literal sense: The wind turbines we have today are 25 times bigger than their predecessors.
- Just seeing the evolution of how it has matured, you know. How costs have been driven down and reliability has gone up. Today, those very wind turbines are indispensable to global energy systems.
How wind energy’s early stumbles are guiding the next innovation
But it wasn’t an easy journey. Morten describes how early wind power pioneers learned through trial and error. There were a lot of things they just weren't aware of, because of the simple fact that no one had gone where they were trying to go.
- Nobody knew what they didn’t know. For instance, placing turbines on Australian hilltops revealed unexpected wind accelerations that caused wear far faster than we anticipated—it was like hitting a bumpy patch on an otherwise smooth road.
That’s to say: When an industry matures, it means that a lot of hiccups and costly mistakes have been made, over and over, until you’ve learned your lesson. Optimization is key.
- It wasn’t just about building turbines—it was about making them better, more reliable, and scalable. That’s where the industry matured,
For Morten, the parallels between wind energy then and thermal storage now, are clear. And it’s precisely the scaling exercise he learned in wind he’s taking with him in his new role as CEO of Kyoto Group.
- Thermal storage today is where wind power was years ago—full of potential but awaiting its big leap forward. While the tech is proven, it’s still maturing. We have the tools, knowledge, and experience to turn potential into actual progress. Industries face mounting energy costs and rising ESG demands, and solutions like Heatcube are designed to meet those challenges head-on.
- It’s no longer just about proving the concept, Morten emphasizes. - Our thermal batteries work. Now it’s about turning them into a product industries trust.