Wallbox launches renewable energy management system for commercial buildings

EV tech company Wallbox unveiled a new innovation this week, Sirius, to maximize use of renewable energy in commercial buildings. Sirius is capable of managing various energy sources and is set to choose the greenest or cheapest source available to meet the building’s demand, as well as storing energy surpluses in EVs or battery walls plugged to the system. Sirius is currently in beta testing and is being used to power Wallbox’s headquarters in Barcelona.

Sirius can increase a building’s renewable energy consumption significantly while also helping overcome the common challenge of weather causing supply/demand imbalances and consumption inefficiencies. In its first six months of use, Sirius increased the Wallbox HQ’s renewable energy consumption by 20% and reduced grid dependency by 50%. 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 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.

Tags: commercial, EV chargers, microgrids, Wallbox