Spanish Firm Designs System To Maximize RE In Commercial Buildings

Spain-based Wallbox has unveiled Sirius: an innovative energy management solution designed to maximize use of renewable energy in commercial buildings.

Representing a big shift from the traditional one-direction flow of electricity from the grid to the building, Sirius is capable of managing various energy sources and will automatically choose the greenest or cheapest one available to meet the building’s demand, as well as storing energy surpluses in EVs or battery walls plugged to the system, said the company.

With its automated intelligence, Sirius can increase a commercial building’s renewable energy consumption significantly. It also helps solve one of the biggest challenges of large-scale use of most green energy sources: its weather-dependent availability, which often results in supply/demand imbalances and consumption inefficiencies, added the firm.

Sirius is currently in beta testing and is being used to power Wallbox’s headquarters in Barcelona. In its first six months of use, Sirius increased the building’s renewable energy consumption by 20% and reduced grid dependency by 50%, states Wallbox.

In this setting, the smart management system uses a fleet of 23 Nissan LEAF cars and Wallbox’s bidirectional Quasar chargers, as well as 750 square meters (approximately 7,500 square feet) of solar panels. This is integrated with 560 kiloWatthours (kWh) of onsite energy storage and the city’s electric grid.

“When expanding our headquarters, we realized that our energy usage would be up more than 400 percent,” Eduard Castañeda, CPO and co-founder of Wallbox, explained. “It would have required a new substation to provide the power we needed, which would take nine months for its full installation. We decided to apply our own technology and saved a lot of time and money while reducing our carbon footprint.”

“Sirius can be applied by companies and cities globally, either to overcome power supply constraints from the grid or to meet carbon emission reduction goals.” he concluded. Once beta testing has completed, the system will be available commercially in markets where Wallbox operates.

Sirius is one of the several energy management technologies currently under development at Wallbox. In the residential segment, Wallbox will soon launch its much anticipated solar and wind EV charging technology, known as Eco-Smart, in Europe and the US. Eco-Smart allows a consumer to use the green energy generated from solar panels or wind turbines at home to charge electric vehicles in an efficient and sustainable way, states the firm.

Enric Ansunción, CEO and co-founder of Wallbox, said, “Our vision goes beyond enabling the adoption of electric vehicles by providing the smartest charging solutions in the world. We ultimately aim to unblock the use of renewable energy at scale. That’s why we created Sirius and developed Eco-Smart.”

“These systems are crafted to help cities, citizens and companies transition to sustainable transportation, energy sources and meet climate goals, while offering economic benefits to our users.”