Author Archives → bjorns

SolarQuotes assessment of SunTenants

Here’s what the very popular website SolarQuotes had to say about SunTenants

Almost one-third of Australians live in rental properties.  This is a problem because tenants don’t like paying their own money to put solar panels on their landlord’s roof and few landlords see solar power as a good investment.  Because of this, lots of the population are missing out on the savings solar slathers all over electricity bills.  It also prevents the world benefiting from the extra clean energy that would be generated.

SunTenants is a company working to resolve this problem and get more solar panels on rental roofs.  They do this by solving the coordination problem between renters and landlords.  SunTenants can fix this problem — for a price.  But if the alternative is no solar gets installed then I think it is a price worth paying.

Read their joke filled write up here.

How an unlikely collaboration redefined a physicist’s approach to climate change

This piece was first published in Cosmos Magazine in December 2019

We generally hear climate change discussed as a technical challenge that will be solved with bigger wind turbines, more electric cars, less steak and fewer flights. The mission is nothing more, and nothing less, than to reduce the emissions of carbon dioxide equivalent units.

As a physicist, this computes for me, but over the past year, I’ve begun to look at things differently.

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Solar energy on the farm: the voice of the scientist

This was originally written for the Kandos School of Cultural Adaptation https://www.ksca.land/blogfeed/2019/5/15/solar-energy-the-scientists-view

Bjorn Sturmberg, solar scientist, offers his thoughts on collaborating with Epicurean Harvest farmers Erika and Hayden, and sculptor Mark Swartz. He gave this spiel via skype to the audience at the Art and Farming Picnic at Bula Mirri Farm on 28 April 2019 (you can read Alex’s blog about that day here).

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The voice of the farmer: Erika Watson

We bought Bula Mirri farm 2 years ago, first with the goal of rebuilding our business Epicurean Harvest (we had started on leased land) and creating our home, then with the aim of bringing people into the farm space and share the passion and creativity used to regenerate landscapes. The property is 120 acres, of which 2.5 acres is currently a commercial farm. We want Bula Mirri to be a place dedicated to regenerative and collaborative practices to provide people with connection to land, provenance, food and culture. After the recent second workshop session here on the farm, Hayden and I are so thrilled to be reigniting our creative passions and exploring our farming knowledge and methods with KSCA artists like Mark, Laura and scientists like Bjorn.

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Batteries on wheels

Sarah Wilson reports on the bold initiative using electric vehicles to power our energy grids in The ANU reporter.

To make sure we have low or zero carbon emissions, we need to electrify as much as possible as quickly as possible.

This may seem like a herculean task. The good news is we don’t need to double the size of our electricity network in order to get there. In fact, the keys to solving the problem are, in some cases, literally in our hands.

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The driving force behind REVS (Realising Electric Vehicles-to-grid Services)

A bold initiative of the ACT Government, to electrify its fleet of vehicles, has grown into a world-leading research and demonstration project that is setting the scene for large-scale adoption of vehicle-to-grid technology in Australia.

A story by Sarah Wilson on the BSGIP website.

There is a buzzword in Europe’s energy business sector, and in particular in Germany’s Energiewende (energy transition). It’s called ‘sector coupling’. Instead of the traditional separation of the energy sectors – electricity, heating and cooling, transport and industrial processes, ‘sector coupling’ refers to the integration of two or more sectors to create synergies.

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“Everyone’s a winner”: PICA Group secures Australian-first strata solar electricity deal

“I see this as everyone is a winner. The proposition for tenants is they don’t have to change anything that they are doing, they are just now having their electricity bills reduced and they also get to feel better by having that cheaper power also be cleaner power,” Dr Sturmberg said. 

“For generators, power purchase agreements (PPA) have been really quite an important way to de-risk their investments in their developments. 

“What is happening in that PPA is you’re locking in the rates all the consumers will be paying for that power – that means as a generator you have certainty.” 

Dr Sturmberg, who is also the founder of social enterprise SunTenants, says to date these types of energy deals have largely been driven by governments, despite demand from renters and smaller entities. 

“It is a really great way for consumers of electricity to have a more direct relationship or direct buying power towards renewables rather than just buying from the national electricity market,” he said. 

“PPAs have started to become more accessible to smaller entities and currently the ACT government has been extremely successful with its power purchase agreement. It’s made the Territory powered by 100 per cent renewable electricity and has in the process saved Canberra millions of dollars.”

Full article in The Fifth Estate here https://thefifthestate.com.au/innovation/residential-2/everyones-a-winner-pica-group-secures-australian-first-strata-solar-electricity-deal/

ACT’s big battery pledge is a step forward

This week, ACT Labor proposed a network of large batteries in the territory that will have a total capacity of 250 megawatts. That’s two-thirds larger than the world’s current largest battery, which is in South Australia, and may well be amongst the top 50 by the time it’s completed.

While little is known yet about the plans beyond the headline, the capacity and the budget spend ($100 million over five years), the general concept is commendable.

The ability to store electricity, such as in batteries, is increasingly critical for us to continue the transition to a zero-emissions future. By supporting battery storage, an investment like this will continue the territory’s international leadership on clean energy, following in the footsteps of the very successful and influential wind and solar reverse auctions.

The proposal is to distribute the batteries across the ACT. This is an excellent move, because it will showcase the versatility of batteries to provide services in a diversity of settings.

Full OpEd in The Canberra Times https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/6951076/acts-big-battery-pledge-is-a-step-forward/