Long before founding a company at the intersection of energy, finance, and technology, Alex Berezhnoy was driven by a simple but powerful curiosity: how does the energy system actually work when theory meets reality? With a strong engineering mindset and an early interest in entrepreneurship, Alex joined the InnoEnergy Master+ programme as a student in the Master’s in Renewable Energy, determined not just to understand the energy transition but to actively shape it. From the very beginning, his focus went beyond textbooks and simulations, leaning instead toward real-world problems that prevented good ideas from becoming real infrastructure.
Discovering the Reality Behind Energy Storage
During his studies, Alex immersed himself in the technical depth of energy systems, particularly energy storage. What quickly became clear to him was that batteries were not just pieces of hardware, but complex assets operating within volatile and highly regulated markets. While energy storage was increasingly recognised as essential for integrating renewables, Alex noticed a recurring frustration among developers: many promising battery projects never made it past the planning stage. Not because the technology did not work, but because projects struggled to secure financing. Banks and investors needed clarity, risk assessments, and credible financial narratives—elements that were often missing or prohibitively expensive to produce.
From Academic Insight to Entrepreneurial Idea
This gap between engineering potential and financial reality became a defining moment in Alex’s journey. While still a student, he began exploring ways to bridge that divide, initially experimenting with technical models and early-stage concepts. Like many entrepreneurial paths, the journey was anything but linear. Alex tested ideas, gathered feedback from industry professionals, built early prototypes, and pivoted more than once. Each iteration brought sharper insights, helping him realise that the real value lay not in consultancy-style advice, but in building a scalable, data-driven platform that could make energy storage projects bankable from day one.
Building StoreNow: Making Storage Projects Bankable
That realisation marked the foundation of StoreNow Energy Platform. Together with his co-founder, Alex transformed years of academic knowledge, market conversations, and technical experimentation into a solution designed for real-world deployment. StoreNow focuses on enabling battery storage projects to succeed by combining detailed technical modelling with financial and risk analysis tailored to what banks and investors actually require. By treating batteries as market participants rather than static assets, the platform helps developers design projects that are not only technically sound, but also financially viable across different European markets.
What sets Alex’s journey apart is not just the company he built, but the mindset behind it. Throughout his path, he embraced validation over assumption, listening over pitching, and resilience over speed. The InnoEnergy ecosystem played a critical role in this development, offering exposure to startups, international innovation hubs, and—most importantly—the people who would challenge his thinking and sharpen his ambition. By the time StoreNow began working with pilot projects and expanding into new geographies, Alex had already spent years learning how to navigate uncertainty, complexity, and constant change.
Today, Alex Berezhnoy’s story reflects what the InnoEnergy Master+ experience aims to cultivate: graduates who combine technical excellence with entrepreneurial courage, and who turn systemic problems into impactful solutions. His journey from student to founder is a testament to the power of curiosity, persistence, and building solutions that respond directly to real market needs.
Want to hear Alex tell this story in his own words? Listen to the full podcast episode here.