Energy Management Systems

American investment behemoth BlackRock has agreed to acquire New Zealand rooftop solar PV and battery energy storage specialist SolarZero as part of its push into renewable energy in the Asia Pacific region.

Transmission network operator Transgrid is counting on technology developed in the United States to increase the capacity for the bidirectional flow of energy between Australia’s most populous states with works on the Victoria to New South Wales Interconnector upgrade project nearing completion.

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory is exploring different paths to 100% emissions-free electricity in the United States.

Integrated clean home energy and smart appliances platform lets users run appliances on battery-stored solar energy in pre-determined time frames.

The Australian Energy Market Operator warns every Australian jurisdiction in the national grid could see electricity demand outstripping supply within the decade – though only if anticipated renewable projects do not come to fruition.

Brisbane Airport Corporation is set to expand its use of artificial intelligence (AI) energy optimisation technology across the international airport following a successful six month trial.



Combining satellite images of Australian rooftops with those of real-time cloud cover to create accurate forecasts of distributed solar output for suburbs and perhaps even whole regions and states is the focus of a new Australian startup, Solstice AI. “We’re kind of at a point now where there’s so much solar that it’s causing all these issues but, if we can forecast it, many of these issues can be alleviated or managed much better,” the company’s cofounder and CEO, Julian de Hoog, tellspv magazine Australia.

Indian researchers have developed a new hybrid system featuring a conventional rooftop PV system, a solar tree, two gravity power modules for building (GPMBs), and a vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB), with power exclusively provided by the two solar installations.

As community opposition to overhead transmission line grows, the Victoria-based Energy Grid Alliance has released a report imploring the energy industry to better understand why the phenomenon is gaining momentum – positing the ‘talk to them early and pay them more’ approach will only further decay the situation. Instead, the group says real attention needs to be paid to social license and ensuring environmental and socioeconomic impacts of chosen transmission corridors are considered from the get-go.

Australian-born vanadium redox flow technology and new homegrown electrolyte sources are set to bulk up renewable energy storage options in the Pacific region and plug the gap left by lithium supply-chain issues. Natalie Filatoff reports from Sydney.