UNSW Engineering carbon emission reduction projects earn EESN grant funding

Two UNSW Engineering projects have been successful as part of the Electrification and Energy Systems Network (EESN) Seed Grant scheme.

Dr. Mike Roberts, from the School of Photovoltaic and Renewable Energy Engineering (SPREE), leads the SunSPOT electrification project, which aims to future-proof solar and battery decision-making for households and businesses.

Meanwhile, Associate Professor Yulei Sui’s team from the School of Computer Science and Engineering, was granted funding to develop an open platform for real-time renewable energy bidding and trading.

The EESN Seed Grant Scheme supports groundbreaking projects focused on reducing carbon emissions through electrification as part of the NSW Government initiative, the NSW Decarbonisation Innovation Hub.

“I am so pleased to announce the awardees of this first round of the “EESN” funded projects. The projects aim is to translate research-based technologies into real-life solutions to today and tomorrow’s challenges in the community,” said Hon. Penny Sharpe, NSW Minister for Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water.

“The outcomes will help build an agile and technology-focused community developing the solutions necessary to reach our net-zero ambitions.”

The EESN Seed Grant Scheme provides crucial funding for projects focusing on technology innovation, development, and impact. These grants, ranging from $50,000 to $200,000, enable collaborative projects between universities and industry by providing essential funding for early-stage innovations.

The evaluation process, conducted independently by an Industry Advisory Board, has rigorously assessed and identified a selection of high-quality, impactful projects deserving of grant awards.

“I am delighted that we have reached this significant milestone in this early stage of the EESN. Our independent Industry Advisory Board worked hard to assess the 21 proposals and select the awardees. We now look forward to the awarded projects delivering their impact,” said Professor John Fletcher, Director Electrification & Energy Systems at the NSW Decarbonisation Innovation Hub.

The SunSPOT project, led by Dr Roberts, aims to address the fact that households need to know if they are going to benefit from energy investment decisions. These decisions are complex and require a range of considerations generally not fully understood outside of specialists in the industry.

The SunSPOT tool has been at the forefront of providing householders with an easy-to-use front end app that performs the heavy-lifting in the background to provide people with support for decisions on investing in rooftop solar.

This project extends the existing tool to not only calculate your expected cost savings and return from a rooftop solar installation, to also extend to battery and heat pump investment decisions.

A/Prof. Sui’s project, led by a team from UNSW with expertise in software engineering, AI, and distributed systems, in collaboration with GreenCity Tech, aims to revolutionise energy management in Australia.

Australia’s renewable energy sector is experiencing a profound transformation, spurred by the rapid integration of emerging technologies and renewable energy sources such as solar and wind.

However, this swift progress also brings forth significant challenges, including the intermittency of renewable energy, the pressure on traditional grid systems, and the demand for effective energy storage solutions.

This project aims to develop a real-time AI-driven software to manage energy distribution and trading.

Central to this system are AI agents that autonomously monitor, analyse, and optimise energy flows, embedded within all connected equipment for communication and control. The system will also feature an advanced embedded system platform for data-driven energy trading, ensuring a balanced, reliable, and economically optimised energy supply.

Over 18 months, the seven awarded projects will work towards translating electrification and energy systems technologies and innovations, and address regulatory, policy, community transition, and economic barriers to decarbonisation, leading to significant economic impact and capacity building across NSW.

This initiative is generously funded by the Environmental Trust and our Network Partners; University of Newcastle, University of New South Wales, University of Wollongong, University of Technology Sydney and the NSW Dept of Primary Industries and Regional Development.