Buildings as Batteries: Let’s see what interesting nuggets of emerald green insights we can prise from our experts during our event, Buildings as Batteries on Wednesday next week.
AGL’s Jason Layt is the latest expert to be revealed.
He’s not alone. We have several on stage, but also in the room, where our “audience spotlight” will capture even more snappy comments, personal insights or even questions!
This event will generate value for you and your business by revealing the practical collective insights of our experts.
And this makes it exciting.
But it will also provide a kind of scaffolding for a deep dive special report that we will produce – or even an ebook.
So, jump in! Get your tickets here in person or online (and let us know if you want to be part of the special report or ebook Contact editorial@thefifthestate.com.au)
The latest speaker to be announced is AGL’s Jason Layt
On Friday, as we delved into the briefing with Layt, it was hard to call time for the conversation.
Layt has so many exciting possibilities, and he’s keen to share them with you.
His company is the biggest solar installer in both commercial and industrial property, and it also installs microgrids.
So, energy solutions behind and in front of the meter, including hybrid energy systems and sometimes even small wind systems.
Its aim is to capture the opportunities of the energy transition for customers, his company and the grid.
Batteries are key, he said.
That’s the story you will also hear from Dexus.
But demand management is also critical.
You’ll hear how we can turn our energy-thirsty commercial towers towards energy conservation (from Craig Roussac of Buildings Alive) the regulations and industry practices that can get them there (from Jorge Chapa of GBCA, and Alison Scotland of ASBEC).
But we’ll also delve into the emerging world of logistics for new generation logistics.
This is the sector with enormous roof space, often just on the outer urban fringes of our major cities. It’s the kind of solar real estate that many have eyed off for years. And now the National Construction Code has mandated that these formerly flimsy tin roofs be structurally upgraded to carry solar panels.
We need all the help we can get
On Monday, Bloomberg New Energy Finance let us know that the building and industry sectors pose the biggest challenges for the net zero transition.
We need a massive $US2.4 trillion investment and a 135 per cent expansion of renewable wind and solar generation by 2030.
See Murray Hogarth’s full story here.
According to Layt, industrial property can yield big sustainability dividends but not across the board. It depends on the industrial use, if it’s manufacturing and it depends on whether the logistics is for storage or for distribution.
“We work with customers to pay them…to tap into a customer’s flexibility to be able to change their demand profile and use that flexibility and monetise it,” he said.
In commercial buildings, there’s very little demand management.
Lift management is a particularly big opportunity, but so is energy guzzling heating and cooling systems to maximise and optimise their energy solutions.
AGL uses independent third party advisors to see what works for different customers with four preferred suppliers: Anthesis, DETA from New Zealand, Northmore Gordon and Node Energy Services.
However, while some big distribution centres or food suppliers may create generous amounts of solar superpower, they may keep it for their own redundancy (for backup power). For some reason, there’s not 100 per cent confidence in the grid!
But Layt’s team can work with some businesses, such as an industrial food processor, for instance, that is happy to be called on to slow down production at pre-arranged times.
Another big opportunity is transport – a massive consumer of energy.
If batteries can allow fast growing EV demand to be filled at night, then quiet little EV vans may well be able to fulfil deliveries while we’re all asleep in our beds.
And then there are data centres. But that’s another story entirely!
Gotta say, this is a story that keeps on giving.
And the strange thing is that no one has access to a single source of truth, so to speak.
There is multiple storylines, views and facts. Each is relevant – and highly valuable – to the stream it fits into.
It depends on where the business is positioned in the supply chain. It’s always this way when an industry is in transition.
Which is why our event morphed and grew as we investigated this emerging critical sector.
As always, we are not offering just networking opportunities.
We are actually digging for stories, trying to investigate what individuals and businesses think and trying to bring you the valuable nuggets of insight that we can prise from them. Just sayin’!