In a surprising twist within the solar industry, Australian energy management hardware maker Catch Power has announced its acquisition of the Australian solar monitoring platform Solar Analytics. This move marks a significant shift in the landscape, given that I had anticipated the opposite—Solar Analytics acquiring Catch! Shows what I know.
The details of the acquisition have not been disclosed, but the transaction is described by both parties as a “mutually agreeable amount.” Funded internally by Catch Power, this move gives a clue as to how profitable they must be. Great work!
The merger’s immediate benefit will be the integration of Solar Analytics’ software into Catch Power’s hardware solutions. Catch Control users can look forward to accessing the analytical prowess of Solar Analytics directly on their devices at no extra cost.
What The Hell Is Catch Power?
Catch Power makes hardware that integrates and controls your solar, battery, hot water systems and other large loads.
For example, their ‘Green Catch‘ hot water controller harvests surplus solar to power conventional hot water systems and their ‘Catch Control‘ (previously called Catch Solar Relay) can control appliances using sophisticated rules around how much solar is available, your battery state of charge or what electricity prices are doing.
An example of Catch Control’s communications features: in Queensland Catch Control units are used to interface to rooftop solar inverters so that they can be managed as part of QLD’s Emergency Backstop Mechanism to reduce exports when the grid is overloaded.
Looking forward, Catch Power is expanding its reach into controlling EV chargers, providing one standard control and monitoring interface for almost any OCPP-compatible EV charger.
Catch is also teasing future integration with Amber Electric and their wildly fluctuating half-hour electricity prices.
What The Hell Is Solar Analytics?
Solar Analytics make arguably the most fully featured solar monitoring in Australia. Their monitoring detects faults or underperformance in your solar panels and alerts you before you lose too much money or something goes bang!
Recently they’ve also got into the tariff optimisation game, alerting you if you are paying too much on your electricity tariff and which retailer you should switch to to save money. This is becoming increasingly useful as tariffs get more complex.
A Match Made In Australia
This acquisition combines two Australian-made success stories, with Catch manufacturing their hardware in Glen Innes, NSW and Solar Analytics coding their magic in Redfern; the goal is to create an integrated platform that simplifies how Australians manage and integrate their solar energy systems into their electrified home and transport.
As we grab the popcorn to observe how this acquisition unfolds, it’s clear that the future of energy management will increasingly rely on integrated solutions that make solar power more accessible and easier to manage for everyone from individual homeowners to large enterprises.
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