Queensland Govt invests $1.96m in Redback Technologies

Renewable energy business Redback Technologies has welcomed two injections of funding totalling $1.96 million from the Queensland Government, which will be used to further advance technology developments.

Speaking recently at the Queensland Energy Storage Summit, Minister for Energy, Biofuels and Water Supply Mark Bailey announced that the government-owned electricity distributor Energy Queensland is investing $1.42 million of staff and resources into a new smart monitoring initiative. Energy Queensland will deploy a team coordinator and two mid-level engineers into Redback’s team as part of a three-year partnership that aims to create and deploy next-generation monitoring solutions that will enable an increase in intelligence, safety and distributed renewables to be deployed on Queensland energy networks.

Meanwhile, government innovation movement Advance Queensland has awarded Redback and The University of Queensland a research fellowship of $0.54 million in staff and resources as part of the Research Fellowship 2017 program to advance the development of smart energy grid capabilities with Redback’s technology. The program will see three data scientists deployed to Redback Technologies with a core focus on making breakthroughs in data management and peer-to-peer energy trading schemes for sustainable cities, as well as knowledge management for microgrid data and microgrid energy storage.

Philip Livingston, founder and managing director of Redback Technologies, said the partnerships with Energy Queensland and Advance Queensland signal the next step in Redback’s evolution in delivering low-cost, intelligent energy solutions for its downstream customers.

“The Queensland Government’s commitment to 50% renewables by 2030 is delivering jobs and investment throughout the state,” he said. “These partnerships mean those with the most relevant expertise are working on these projects and will further cement Redback’s vision to enable Australian households and businesses to be entirely powered by renewable energy all day, every day.”

The news comes less than one week after Redback Technologies signed a memorandum of understanding with Duserve Facilities Management, which will see the companies collaborate on a pilot project trialling Redback’s energy management products in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).