The latest terms will see an additional $3 million invested into Evergen through the Providence Smart Future Early Stage Venture Capital Fund, with Alan Yu, co-founder of Providence Asset Group, also joining Evergen as a Non-Executive Director.
As part of the deal, Evergen has also been appointed as the global software partner on all LAVO™ and H2Store hydrogen batteries. With the future of energy being in storage and distributed forms of energy, Evergen’s Intelligent Control software will provide the digital customer experience and optimise Providence’s invested consumer focused hydrogen battery, LAVO™, to maximise performance and allow Virtual Power Plant enablement (alongside more traditional lithium batteries). H2Store batteries will be deployed on Providence solar farms in coming years, and Evergen’s software will optimise these into VPPs with utilities to maximise the benefit of these projects for their communities.
Ben Hutt, CEO and Managing Director of Evergen said, “This investment and strategic alignment marks the next chapter in Evergen’s evolution. Our alignment with the team at Providence to accelerate the transition to renewables, and do this at scale both in Australia and elsewhere in the world, is very strong. We’ve been waiting for hydrogen batteries, and the LAVO™ and H2Store products are world-class and unique in what they can deliver for consumers, businesses, and the system as a whole. It’s still early for this technology, and current Lithium Ion batteries will be essential for many years to come, but in the long term hydrogen can be better for the environment. In the context of the Federal Government’s technology roadmap, this partnership allows us to be focusing on three of the five pillars: Batteries, storage, and Hydrogen.”
In recent months, Evergen has announced other big deals including their partnership with the largest solar and battery retailer in Australia, Service Solar Group which has now led to formation of electricity retailer, Members Energy. There are also significant projects underway with a number of major utilities that will be announced in coming months. Evergen expects to be orchestrating fleets totalling 5,000 household batteries by Christmas, with several multi-megawatt projects coming online in early 2021.
Providence recently announced a 10-year joint research and collaboration initiative with the University of NSW, forming the Hydrogen Energy Research Centre to find more efficient and cost-effective energy storage solutions. This partnership aims to find more efficient and cost-effective energy storage solutions, one being LAVO™, an Australian-led venture developing one of the world’s first residential solar-based hydrogen energy storage systems.
Hydrogen has emerged as a high potential alternative for zero-emissions energy storage, with a large range of potential uses, including within the electricity system, as well as for transport and industrial fuels.
Alan Yu, co-founder of Providence Asset Group said, “Our investment and partnership with Evergen marks our commitment to accelerating hydrogen solutions and making small scale hydrogen batteries and associated products available worldwide. Evergen’s software allows for a very consumer-centric experience, and the ability to maximise benefits from these investments allow us to focus on building and distributing a world-class solution.”
Evergen’s evolution now sees them operating solely as a SaaS business, focusing on enabling smarter energy by orchestrating large fleets of batteries to enable Virtual Power Plants (VPPs).
Michael Cummings, Partner, Global Infrastructure, AMP Capital said, “We are delighted to bring Providence into Evergen as a partner. This will help us accelerate our ambitions to play a major role in clean energy transition, both in Australia and elsewhere in the world.”
Since late 2019, Evergen’s mission has been to kill a coal-fired power station in 10+ countries by powering the transition to a resilient, renewable, decentralised energy system of the future. Providence is an innovation-led investment firm, financing and managing multiple assets in renewable energy generation, storage and technology including community and large scale solar farms.
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