Last week, Deakin University announced that it had completed a year-long, Australia-first study trialling technology that allows households and small businesses to buy and sell solar and battery power to each other via a digital platform.
The Virtual Energy Network (VEN) study, led by Deakin Business School and funded by Energy Consumers Australia, used the software of Australian company Enosi to allow peer-to-peer and anonymous pool trading of solar power.
As Deakin University’s Andrea La Nauze told Renew Economy’s Solar Insiders podcast last week, the early findings from the 300-odd participant study found the use of VENs increased access to solar and battery use, lowered electricity prices, and encouraged greater perceptions of a fairer energy system.
But according to Enosi, one of the most promising applications of its software – an an approach that promises to have the greatest success in actually boosting access to solar non-solar households – is yet to be tested in Australia’s risk-averse retail market.
Instead, it’s “going gangbusters” in Italy – and making Australia’s newly launched Solar Sharer Offer look like a “blunt instrument” when applied to the task of matching demand to generation and democratising access to energy generated from the sun.
