Pivoting with Purpose: BESS, Emerging Markets and Entrepreneurship, Ville Kaituri, Founder of Olana Energy
- S1E42
- 41:03
- May 14th 2025
In this episode, Adam sits down with Ville Kaituri, founder of Olana Energy, an independent power producer based in Finland that’s doubling down on battery energy storage (BESS) across Eastern Europe.
Ville shares the story behind Olana Energy’s rapid pivot from solar to storage, explaining how a crash in the Finnish real estate market and a curiosity about market volatility led him to rethink how energy infrastructure should be built – and who should build it. He dives into Olana Energy’s unique people-first approach to growth, prioritising entrepreneurial local talent over project pipelines, and why that mindset is key to scaling at speed across fragmented, high-opportunity energy markets like Poland and the Baltics.
The conversation touches on everything from navigating grid chaos and regulatory red tape, to the role of storytelling, decision-making agility, and why traditional infrastructure investment models aren’t built for today’s energy volatility. Ville also opens up about rebranding the company, how to optimise BESS performance with real-time analytics, and what he looks for in capital partners with the guts to move fast.
Adam and Ville cover:
- Why the team pivoted from solar to BESS - and how they’re scaling fast across Poland and the Baltics
- The risks of project-first thinking and why finding the right people comes first
- How fast decisions, flat structures, and founder storytelling fuel infrastructure growth
- Why owning BESS knowledge in-house beats outsourcing in a still-nascent market
- What emerging markets reveal about grid visibility, investment barriers, and regulatory reform
Useful Links
Visit Olana Energy's website: https://www.olana.fi/en
Connect with Ville on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/villekaituri/
Join Hypercube's Beyond Energy Community: https://wearehypercube.com/join-the-community/
The Hypercube Podcast
The Hypercube Podcast explores the application of technology, data and AI across the energy sector.
In the fast-moving energy landscape, organisations of all sizes need to understand and adopt emerging tech to tackle complex problems, identify new areas of innovation and capitalise on opportunity.
What should an energy technology strategy look like?
How do we identify what problems to solve first?
What innovations are being made in the industry?
These are the questions that host Adam Sroka seeks to answer on this show.
In each episode, he sits down with tech experts and business leaders from the energy sector to understand exactly how they are solving energy-specific data challenges today.
You can learn more about Hypercube - Energy Technology Partner at wearehypercube.com
Join the Beyond Energy Community: wearehypercube.com/join-the-community/