Abundant Power Solutions, and 180 Smart Energy are family owned businesses located between Yass and Murrumbateman. Abundant Power Solutions will have a renewable energy display (the latest Solar and Battery technology) at the Murrumbateman Field Days just as they have for the past several years, but this year they will have the worlds’, smartest, and most advanced all in one solar system in the world, the Smart Flower Solar System is an extraordinary renewable energy product.
Robyn Atherton spoke with Byron McIntyre about the Smart Flower.
The Smart Flower’s, design is based on a sunflower, it’s a robotic masterpiece and it’s a sculpture that is a solar system.
“The Smart Flower literally mimics the beauty of a sunflower, just as a sunflower uses heliotropism to track the sun, the smart flower mimics this very action, we tell the smart flower where it is located in the world by programming in an exact longitude and latitude, and time zone, then the Smart Flower does the rest, it will open on sunrise and track the sun, (this allows optimal power generation approximately 40% more power than a fixed solar system) then closes on sunset, whilst the Smart Flower opens and closes, it also cleans itself at the same time, minimising power loss from dirty solar panels.
“The other great feature is the Smart Flower will protect itself from bad weather, as it closes when wind speed is above 30klm per hour, so there is no panel damage in hailstorms.
“The Smart Flower comes with a very cool app for your personal electronic device, giving the owner visibility of their Smart Flowers at their fingertips, additionally Abundant Power Solutions can monitor the operation of individual Smart flowers.
“Seeing is believing, the Smart Flower is sure to impress”
“At full height in winter when the sun is low in the sky and the Smart Flower is up in its most vertical position it is approximately 5.2 metres tall. It’s very impressive. It’s a large beautiful masterpiece. “I’ve been following the Smart Flower progress and having communications with Smart Flower in Austria for over two years, and we finally received the approval to sell the product and be the technical resource for Smart Flower here in Australia. “We are a small family business, we have five great employees, we specialise in critical power solu-tions, battery storage and off-grid power, the Smart-Flower is a great fit for our power solutions. The owner of Smart Flower, Jim Gordon, lives in Boston USA and is a pioneer in renewable energy technology.
Robert Sawyer is the managing director of Smart-Flower solar and he is based in Austria, Europe.
“For Smart Flower to agree for Abundant Power Solutions to be their technical partner in Australia is just fantastic. It has taken a lot of work.
“Both Nick Martin-Oaks who is my business partner in 180 Smart En-ergy have travelled separately to Austria to go to the factory. When asked how does the USA factor into this, if the manufacturing is in Austria?
Byron reported that “Jim Gordon, the owner, bought a 10% share in the company in approximately 2014 and a little later the company suffered some financial issues and Jim then bought the company outright and steered it back to a profitable and great business. An Australian – Austrian partner-ship is pretty cool.
“Nick and I started a company called 180 Smart Energy which is based on the rotation of the Smart Flower.
“Nick is the sales guy, I’m not, I’m a technical guy. When we decided to launch in Australia, we thought where better than the Murrumbate-man Field Days for our first display.
“180 Smart Energy is the sales company; Abundant Power Solu-tions is the approved technical company.
“It’s very exciting. I have been fascinated with it the Smart Flower for two years and I only last week went to Austria and when I saw the Smart Flowers in the ‘flesh’ I thought I have done the right thing chasing this exceptional peace of electrical and mechanical engineering.
“There’s been multiple large companies in Australia contacting Smart-Flower wanting to be the agent and wanting to sell the product across the whole country, so for Smart Flower to agree to giving 180 Smart energy and Abundant the rights to sell service and install this product is super exciting.
“It will make enough power to run an average home. It will generate 20 to 30 Kwh per day, it has a 25-year service plan so we can keep it alive for 25 years minimum. If you move house, you just ring me and I come and decommission it, lift it, transport it to your new home and set it up again; or leave it at your current home because it’s guaranteed to increase the property value.
The Smart-Flower can be ordered in multiple combinations, Grid Connected, Battery Storage and fully Off-Grid, we can also fit EV Chargers and general Power Outlets. We are working with Master Instruments from Sydney; they will supply the inverters and battery options.
“The first two Smart-Flowers heading to Australia are in the air on their way, a demonstration unit, and the first to be installed and fully operational to an awesome customer in Victoria, Wandilla.
“Murrumbateman Field Days 19-20 October will be the launch for Smart Flower in Australia, and we will have it on display. Site numbers are G47 & G44 they are back-to-back sites, located right near the north entry on Dowan Hill Row. After the launch at the Field Days, we are thinking that people could make a booking to come to our property and see it in action”.
