Australia’s Energy Industry is Shifting Vastly｜An In-depth Interview with Trevor Townsend Part I
Trevor Townsend, the CEO of Startupbootcamp Australia, provided some key insights on Australia’s shifting energy industry.
Despite the pouring rain and his busy travel schedule, Trevor looked rather fresh and frisky when he stepped into our office, greeting everyone with his brilliant smile. As Startupbootcamp Australia is ready to launch its brand new 3-month program, the CEO of the flourishing accelerator decided to head on a short trip to Asia, hoping to bring outstanding talents with him back to Melbourne, and create an inspiring entrepreneur adventure.
With only one day in Taipei, Trevor wasted no time, immediately setting up office hours for Taiwan startups who are interested in exploring Western markets, while conducting interviews with media that wishes to grasp more insights on Australia’s startup ecosystem. For him, the job is way more than just attracting startups to apply to their program, but to really equip them with updated knowledge of the current market, whilst providing a safe network with multiple connections around the world.
When it comes to expanding abroad, overseas connections not only provides you a softer-landing, but also boosts your development through existing partnerships.
With offices all around the world, Startupbootcamp can provide exactly that.
“Every Startupbootcamp accelerator program focuses on the industry that thrives within the city/country.” Trevor explained, “When industry leaders see change and potential disruption within their business realm, they’ll begin looking for opportunities to work with startups to keep themselves in the game.”
For the fashion capital Milan, Startupbootcamp launched a Fashion Tech program in the city, aiming to assist the least technological industry to catch up with the inevitable trend. Meanwhile in Africa, the Africa Tech program targets at startups that help poor and underprivileged people to live a better life. The same concept applies to Berlin, Dubai, and Rome with respective programs on Sports Tech, Smart Cities, and Food.
Within the 21 cities Startupbootcamp has set their foot on, Melbourne is assigned to challenge the existing energy industry with startups willing to make changes. Though the way Australians use and produce energy is shifting largely due to ecological concerns (now being one of the most residential solar PV holders), the economical impact it dooms to cast on the market, has multiple startups set eyes on their prey.
“The hierarchical/vertical energy system people are used to is now being threatened.” Trevor noted when acknowledging energy-related startups springing up, “The generator at the top transmission who drops high voltage down to low voltage distribution is gradually being replaced by private groups who control and share their own power in smaller areas, such as campus or suburb.”
Of course, this means users would now have the freedom to decide how they want to produce their energy, and how much do they want to pay for it; however, in exchange, issues around reliability, system security, and matching demand/supply emerge. Without big generators keeping the whole voltage in sync, people need to find another way to stabilize their energy, or keep a close look on how their energy is being used.
This is when startups attacking these pain points join in the game.
“For instance, one of the startups we visited earlier this morning in Taipei — 3Egreen — creates this wireless smart grid which monitors power consumption, providing analytic and accurate feedback constantly to avoid energy waste.” Trevor recalled after elaborating on another epitome in Israel, where the startup specializes in energy storage, storing overproduced energy in ice.
“Even weather data plays an important role in the energy industry.” he quoted, sounding rather amused, “Building up a startup is not only trying to challenge the norm, but also to adapt and find solutions for emerging problems within the shifting trend.” Imagine a startup who provides precise data on how energy usage and production in Taiwan changes when a typhoon hits; wouldn’t that be extremely useful?
Taking a short break, Trevor was definitely excited to share more, barely keeping himself on the couch, yet worries if he’s boring us with too much complicated information.
“Of course not!” He smiled to our response.
In the next article, Trevor will talk about how Taiwan startups can benefit from joining Australia’s accelerators, and how he prioritizes good team with okay ideas over bad team with great ideas.
Written on September 10th, 2019 by Billy Kuo.
