It’s been a big few weeks for the carbonTRACK team.
With business activity ramping up both in Australia and overseas, we've been lucky enough to attend two leading industry events in a space of just a couple of weeks: Solar Power International, held in Anaheim and All Energy here in Melbourne.
Fresh with some insights from both Anaheim and Melbourne, here are some highlights from each event, our take on what's happening in the industry globally and what we’re excited to be working on in the coming months.
Solar Power International (SPI). Our take: big focus on Time of Use and Demand Response features
Supporting the exhibition of our US partner, naak, carbonTRACK was proud to be a part of North America’s largest solar event this year. naak’s interactive stand showcased the carbonTRACK technology, giving stand visitors a live glimpse of how it monitors, controls, and automates energy. carbonTRACK’s ability to manage and optimise multiple Time of Use tariffs and facilitate Demand Response initiatives received great interest among energy retailers and solar businesses wanting to differentiate their offer.
The naak stand was located right next to the Pika Energy stand, a US-based battery inverter company which now integrates with carbonTRACK technology. The close proximity allowed for easy interaction between the two stands which worked well given the level of interest in the advanced inverter control capability this integration now provides.
A big thanks goes to the team at naak for creating such an impact and for telling the carbonTRACK story so well. We’re humbled by the level of interest in our solutions and are working hard on several exciting projects with organisations wanting to give their customers greater control of their energy use and faster returns on their solar investments.
All Energy Australia. Our take: all things BEYOND solar monitoring
Having landed in back in Melbourne just one day before, our CTO, Shavaj Kallamkote was a guest speaker at the All Energy Australia conference. The session entitled ‘The Monitoring Faceoff’ was a discussion on the merits of different monitoring solutions with Shavaj sharing the stage with Nigel Morris, Business Development Director at Solar Analytics.
After a brief introduction from the team at the Clean Energy Council it was over to Nigel and Shavaj who spoke of the importance of solar monitoring and highlighted the strengths of their respective solutions.
The highlights from Shavaj’s presentation:
- “It all starts with a great monitoring solution, but what delivers value is not the monitoring itself, it is what we are able to do with the data and insights we gather.” He used the analogy of your Google-based sat nav telling you there’s traffic ahead. That’s great information but essentially meaningless unless Google is also able to tell you how to best navigate around that traffic quickly and easily. Which of course it does.
- It is this intelligence that differentiates carbonTRACK from other energy management solutions – except, unlike Google, we will also ‘drive the car’ for you (and your customers). Our technology monitors energy use and production and uses these insights to optimise a user’s energy spend. It automates the use of solar when solar is available and decides when best to run loads or charge batteries to make use of best time-of-use tariffs. This control is automated or can be managed by the user directly through our app or dashboard.
The session closed with some questions from the floor. Members of the audience had some installation questions but also focused on the bigger picture. There was significant interest in how each solution fits with other industry players, handles security and facilitates Virtual Power Plants. We’re creating an article dedicated to our unique approach to handling Security, in the meantime to understand how things connect in the carbonTRACK ecosystem watch our explainer video here.
Where to from here
Overall, the carbonTRACK team is feeling energized and extremely positive about where the industry is heading and what we can achieve together. At these two events we saw some exciting advances in solar technologies (from panels to storage) and many manufacturers, installers and service providers wanting to give their customers greater energy control, faster returns on their solar investments and the ability to further reduce their impact on the environment.
That’s the role we see carbonTRACK playing. We are the technology piece that connects solar panels, inverters and home automation systems to give advanced energy control for both energy users and energy providers. This is how we do it.
So, to all existing carbonTRACK partners – we look forward to continuing to work with you to help shape the global energy future. And to those thinking about becoming a carbonTRACK partner - get in touch with the team today or find out more here.