Indigenous renewable technology company AllGrid Energy has announced it will join forces with energy management start-up Redback Technologies, as it continues to work with Australia’s remote and indigenous communities to give them energy reliability via solar power and battery storage.
Under the partnership, AllGrid will use Redback’s core energy management hardware and software technologies, adapting them for use in the remote applications and building in additional
functionality for integration of water and related bio systems.
“Australia is a vast continent and many Indigenous people live in remote and regional areas,” said AllGrid CEO Ray Pratt, himself an Arrernte man from Alice Springs.
“The cost of transmitting energy through wires that span thousands of kilometres is enormous and this means that these communities are often compromised in their power supplies and are experiencing real energy poverty,” he said.
“Redback’s inverter and software technology provide an intelligent platform for the use of storage in the home. This melds perfectly with AllGrid’s systems, which are ideally suited for the work we are doing in remote areas. Bringing the two together will allow the creation of a technologically superior product for our customers.”
AllGrid Energy came onto the Australian solar and battery storage scene just under a year ago, with the launch of their 10kWh WattGrid battery – a tubular gel variant of lead acid battery technology, with a hybrid (bidirectional) inverter – which the company claimed was cheaper than the Tesla Powerwall.
Since then, the indigenous-owned company has used its technology to implement its “Oasis Strategy”, which aims to create energy sovereignty, community empowerment and economic self-reliance for Australia’s remote and disadvantaged communities, using solar as the first step – an effort that earned Pratt recognition from the Climate Council.
Most recently, AllGrid did this for the Barkly Tablelands communities of Ngurrara and Kurnturipara, as we reported here.
“Although we are a wealthy first world country, in many remote communities and areas of significant Indigenous population, people are living in third world conditions,” Pratt said in a statement this week.
“Across the world it is being increasingly recognised that renewable technologies have the potential to facilitate self-sufficiency.”
Redback, meanwhile, specialises in a proprietary cloud enabled software system, the Ouija Board, which gathers data over time, learning from user preferences as well as drawing from external factors like the weather, and uses it to maximise the performance of solar and battery storage systems.
Recently, the company sold a stake to Queensland University’s commercialisation division, UniQuest, in a deal aimed at accelerating the roll-out of its solar energy storage and management technologies.
Under the agreement, Redback will be able to access UQ’s solar energy assets for testing and demonstration purposes, as well as future cutting edge research from throughout the university, in return for UniQuest taking an equity position the Indooroopilly-based company.
Like many others in the “internet of things” energy sub-sector, Redback Technologies managing director, Philip Livingston, believes software is the key to maximising the benefits that renewable energy offer.
“(AllGrid and Redback) are both young and emerging companies who are passionate and determined to reach the same vision of a renewable energy future,” Livingston said in a statement.
“Our partnership and commitment to collaboration gives us agility and resilience in this new and exciting market.”
Sophie is editor of One Step Off The Grid and editor of its sister site, Renew Economy. Sophie has been writing about clean energy for more than a decade.
