Published

12 months ago

December 24, 2024

Alice Rush

Macquarie Acquires Ziton, Octopus Energy Enters US Market

This week on News Flash, the hosts discuss Macquarie Asset Management’s acquisition of Ziton, a Denmark based provider of operations and maintenance services to the offshore industry. Also, Octopus Energy solidifies its entry into the US renewables market with an investment to create 600 megawatts of new solar farms in the U. S. And Berkshire Hathaway consolidates their company operations, opening the door for more renewable projects.

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Allen Hall: I’m Allen Hall, president of Weather Guard Lightning Tech, and I’m here with the founder and CEO of IntelStor, Phil Totaro, and the chief commercial officer of Weather Guard Lightning Tech, Joel Saxum. And this Is your newsflash news flashes brought to you by our friends at IntelStor. If you want market intelligence that generates revenue, then book a demonstration of IntelStor at IntelStor. com

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway energy, the second largest us clean power owner will pay about 3. 9 billion for the minority 8 percent stake held by the family of late board member, Walter Scott. The deal involves 2. 37 billion in cash. The exchange of Berkshire Class B shares for 1. 6 billion BHE shares and issuance of a 600 million one year note.

As of January 1st, Berkshire Hathaway Energy owned about 14 gigawatts of clean energy capacity, including 12 gigawatts of wind. And roughly 2 gigawatts of solar and storage. Now, Phil, Berkshire Hathaway Energy has been consolidating operations over the last 6 to 12 months. Is this part of that larger plan to consolidate?

Philip Totaro: It sounds like it although this is also obviously a bit of a legacy thing with taking over the stake held by, by Scott’s family and presumably in some kind of a trust or something. Like. It’s giving Berkshire Hathaway Energy the opportunity, as you mentioned, to just consolidate the, the company’s ownership and consolidate the brands under the Berkshire Hathaway Energy umbrella, which theoretically gives them more power.

Bandwidth and more capacity to keep borrowing if they need to borrow to go, build out the pipeline of renewable energy projects that they’ve got. So one thing that we’ve talked about recently on the show is the fact that there’s a lot of investment funds and firms coming into the renewable sector.

What they bring with them is capital, or the ability to go leverage the, the capital base that they’ve got to go borrow money. So for your big utility company owner operators, they want to be able to do a similar thing. And this is going to help kind of bolster the, the company’s ability to, to do that.

Joel Saxum: Yeah. It’s the same thing. Like Phil saying, we’ve talked about on the show before Berkshire Hathaway backed Warren Buffett, big money is following the same concept as you’re seeing with a lot of other big money groups, Vanguard, BlackRock, all these different and, and of course, pension funds and whatnot of putting their capital Into energy infrastructure world, right?

So they’re helping build up the energy transition, but that’s because they see it as good business. So when you see big money coming into a certain sector, you can bet it’s going to be around a while and they’re betting banking on success. UK

Allen Hall: based Octopus Energy has made two new investments in the U. S.

green energy market. Following its initial entry just three months ago with solar farm acquisitions in Ohio and Pennsylvania, the company sealed a deal with solar farm developer SoCal to help them rapidly scale up, targeting 600 megawatts of new solar farms in the U. S. Over the next five years, primarily in Texas, this is expected to generate enough green power for about 40, 000 Texan homes.

UK based solar developer Zestec, supported by Octopus Energy, is also moving into the U. S. market, focusing on commercial and industrial rooftop solar projects. Okay, Phil, so the solar industry is really ramping up in the United States. Octopus has been active there and is now bringing others over. The rapid development of solar in the United States is pushing a lot of investment, too.

How fast do you expect solar to grow here over the next 12 months?

Philip Totaro: There’s a tremendous amount of solar projects in the pipeline of project development pipeline, as well as in the interconnection cubes. And the reason for the timing of this, and why we want to cover a solar play here on, on the wind energy podcast is the fact that Octopus Group in general, an octopus energy, they’re, they’re obviously energy focus subsidiary is, is doing this at this time is they feel the conditions are right for.

Their type of business model and what that is, is they sometimes will go leverage the capital that they bring to the table, but they also have a pretty unique perspective where they’ve partnered with companies in the UK, like Ripple Energy, for instance, where they do either fractional ownership or community development.

Of sites on behalf of a multitude of, of different owners and investors in a project. And so that’s part of the angle here is for them to be able to deploy a rather substantial amount of capital into, much smaller, um, solar plays within the market. In, in the US which hasn’t really been particularly well penetrated.

We’ve got a lot of corporate and industrial power buying for solar and, and industrial rooftop solar. Obviously we’ve got some residential and that still, needs to be built out. We’re not quite at the same levels of penetration, at least on a percentage wise basis compared to places like Australia, for example.

But there’s, there’s more room to grow and as octopus, pardon the pun, but extends his tentacles and, and, tries to, Ensure that they’ve got a, a presence in in both utility scale, wind utility scale, solar utility scale, energy storage technology. This also gives them a chance with these partnerships to get into the residential solar market and ensure that they could take advantage of.

The growth potential that that we see in the market.

Joel Saxum: So in the United States, there’s a two, two very separate markets for solar, right? You have your big utility scale stuff and you have your smaller stuff that is industrial commercial residential, whether it’s rooftops or or some people putting solar panels on top of parking structures, these kind of things.

As Phil mentioned, Australia is leading the world, of course, in this, in this space of integration with solar and the community itself. Octopus coming in with their knowledge, their expertise, and some capital behind them to make a move in this sector. It’s a good thing for the energy transition within the United States.

Allen Hall: Macquarie Asset Management is set to acquire 100 percent ownership of Ziton, a Denmark based provider of operations and maintenance services to the offshore wind industry. The acquisition is expected to be completed in December of this year, or the first quarter of 2025, subject to regulatory approvals.

Zyton recently launched a new brand identity, Zyton 2. 0, signaling its focus on future decades of O& M service solutions for offshore wind turbines. All right, Phil, so Macquarie has been investing in renewable energy, and particularly in wind. The push offshore and then being an australian based organization is that to prepare for the offshore growth in australia or they really focused on offshore

Philip Totaro: growth over in northern europe they’re looking at a global perspective Allen.

Is it on themselves has been active in eleven different countries on i think it’s something like eighty or eighty five different projects. And. It’s mostly European but that’s also based on the legacy of their, EPC vessels and service vessels that they’ve developed and utilized over the past few decades.

Now, with the industry looking to push to much bigger scale and heights in, in terms of turbine size, as well as the pace of deployment globally with the consolidation in the market with Kedler. For example, and, other companies, Van Oord and Bonner and, and companies like this, really building out their portfolio of vessels.

The Chinese are also starting to look like they’re going to be competition globally as far as both the equipment providers and the EPC contractors and vessels even if you’re gonna have a European flagged vessel, you may end up still having it fabricated over in China just because of how cost effective it can be to do that.

So this play on behalf of Macquarie is helping them kind of build pieces of a puzzle where, you’ve seen them make acquisitions in onshore wind, offshore wind, some solar and storage, they’ve made acquisitions in asset management. They’ve made acquisitions now in companies that can provide services.

I would anticipate that they’re not done yet making acquisitions, but it’s also part of bringing a lot of capabilities in house and positioning themselves for the future of the industry. So,

Joel Saxum: talking at the recent Hamburg event, a lot of, People got together, a lot of ideas were shared, a lot of information was shared.

One of the things you heard out of the, coming out of that market over there in the EU is that there is some consolidation going on. And part of this goes hand in hand with some margin compression and some other things that are happening within the market. But when you see a group like Zaytan that, their EBITDAs, Going up this year and things are looking bright having some big money come in.

It looks good for that space the whole offshore wind O& M space as the, we continue the build out for offshore wind. Nice to see more money coming in in the face of some different market conditions.

https://weatherguardwind.com/macquarie-ziton-octopus-energy-us-market/

Renewable Energy

Raw Stupidity: Yet One More Reason that Trump Must Go

Published

19 hours ago

December 13, 2025

Alice Rush

From the Huffington Post:

A senior FBI officer struggled to answer basic questions about antifa, despite characterizing the organization as “the most immediate violent threat” the US faces.

At a House Committee on Homeland Security hearing on Thursday, Michael Glasheen, operations director of the national security branch of the FBI, said he agreed with President Donald Trump that antifa is one of the greatest national security threats to the country.

The answer, of course, is that “Antifa” is a concept, not an organization. It refers to anyone who is against fascism. It has no headquarters, no leaders, and no members.

Now, it is true that people with these views can be violent. When my father led a crew of his fellow anti-fascists, flying a B-17 bomber in World War 2, they completed 29 successful missions, destroying Nazi oil refineries. Were Nazi soldiers killed in the process? I never asked him that, and he probably didn’t know, as they were flying at 29,000 feet, but it seems extremely unlikely that no one died.

In peacetime, we antifa people are non-violent. We may be marching for BLM, or encouraging the use of science in policymaking, or expressing our view that the United States should not have a king.

The FBI must understand this; they must be saying this purely to placate Trump. No one can be that stupid.

Raw Stupidity: Yet One More Reason that Trump Must Go

Renewable Energy

Hydrokinetics Gone Awry

Published

2 days ago

December 12, 2025

Alice Rush

When I came across the meme at left, I was instantly reminded of a guy who called me from Baltimore, MD about 15 years ago, anxious for me to hunt up investors in an invention he had created. I was having a hard time understanding the concept he was describing, and so he told me, “Think of it as a river in a box.”

“Ah! Now I get it. You have a box full of standing water. You add energy to it to get it moving, and then our extract energy from the moving water. And you think that you can extract more energy than you put into it.”

“Yes!” he said excitedly.

I calmly told him that this violates the laws of physics, specifically the first and second laws of thermodynamics, but he wasn’t “having it.” I wished him a pleasant good night and asked him to let me know when he had built a working prototype.

I’m still hoping to hear from him again.

Hydrokinetics Gone Awry

Renewable Energy

Benefits of Solar Power Solution in Manufacturing Facilities

Published

2 days ago

December 12, 2025

Alice Rush

In today’s dynamic manufacturing world, energy is more than just a utility; it’s the spark that keeps production running. Industrial facilities, powered by massive engines and heavy machinery, often operate 24/7, driving output but also consuming enormous amounts of electricity.

The issues? Soaring energy costs and a growing environmental footprint.

Sometimes it’s like a cycle that often feels impossible to break, but what if your facility could draw energy from a cleaner, more reliable, and cost-effective energy source?

Yes, you heard it right, and that’s where solar power comes in!

As electricity prices continue to rise and corporate sustainability goals become more pressing, manufacturers are rethinking how they power their commercial operations.

Therefore, solar energy is emerging as a game-changing solution, offering reliability, long-term savings, and a sustainable path forward for the Australian manufacturing industry.

In this blog, we’ll explore how manufacturers are successfully implementing solar power, featuring real-world case studies from Cyanergy that highlight both the business advantages and environmental impact.

So, let’s explore how solar energy can help your manufacturing facility reduce costs and enhance efficiency, achieving long-term sustainability.

In this blog post:

Why Solar Energy Is Essential for Modern Manufacturing Facilities?

In Australia, manufacturing facilities typically have large roof or yard footprints, significant and relatively
stable electrical loads, including lighting, motors, HVAC, and other machinery. So, the energy used every day is
enormous.

By harnessing the sun’s energy, factories can significantly cut operating
costs, reduce carbon emissions, and gain greater control over long-term energy stability.

Beyond the environmental benefits, solar power also strengthens a company’s competitive edge and brand reputation in
an increasingly eco-conscious market.

Here we’ve penned down the importance of solar power in the manufacturing industry:

Energy cost mitigation

So, how solar energy reduces manufacturing costs in Australia?

With electricity prices rising and energy market volatility increasing, incorporating solar energy offers a
way to
reduce grid dependency and lower utility costs in the long term.

Ensure Operational Continuity & Resilience

Solar panel systems, when paired
with
battery storage, can help smooth peak energy demand, reduce grid dependence, and improve functioning
time.

Promote Sustainability and Brand Value

In larger industries, many manufacturers are under pressure from customers, regulators, investors, and
internal
stakeholders to reduce
their carbon footprint.

Solar helps them to achieve energy freedom, powering businesses with a sustainable energy source.

Increase Asset value & ROI

Solar systems, when sized appropriately and properly optimised, can deliver payback in a few years and
continue to
provide savings thereafter.

According to Cyanergy’s capability statement, we delivered a 490
kW system that generated 752 MWh for a manufacturing client, with a 37-month payback period.

This shows that industrial-scale solar can deliver real, practical results for manufacturers.

Now, let’s examine solar power solutions for manufacturing facilities, case studies, and best practices to ensure a
clear understanding.

Case Studies from Cyanergy: Real-World Manufacturing Success in Australia!

In this part of the blog, we have selected three examples from Cyanergy to illustrate how manufacturing facilities are utilising solar energy.

These are not generic installations; these are production-oriented businesses taking real steps across different states of Australia.

1. Uniplas Mouldings International – Wetherill Park, NSW

Project Overview

System size: 490 kW solar system installed in staged phases
Investment: AUD $591,823.71.
Annual generation: 752 MWh
Yearly energy costs before solar: approximately $647,000.
After solar: $456K, which is approximately 55% of the previous
Payback period: 37 months

Why it matters

For Uniplas, a large industrial manufacturer, the solar system not only significantly reduces their operating energy
costs, but the payback of just over 3 years means that the return on investment is also attractive for the
business.

The staged approach also allowed them to access multiple subsidies and implement the project rapidly; for example,
the first stage of 200 kW was completed in four weeks.

This clearly shows how manufacturing operations can incorporate
solar without any significant disruption.

2. AC Laser – Thomastown, VIC

Project Overview

System size: 99.45 kW
Annual generation: 141.75 MWh
Annual electricity cost before solar: $79,000.
After solar: $38,160, a reduction of more than 50%
Payback period: 26 months

Why it matters

This is a smaller-scale manufacturing facility compared to Uniplas, yet the results are impressive: a more than 50%
cost reduction and a shorter payback period.

This shows that not only large-scale commercial properties but also mid-sized manufacturing operations can benefit
from solar, not just large ones.

Insights Gained from the Case

Don’t wait until your business is huge, as size is scalable.
The solar system’s size aligned well with the manufacturing load, saving thousands of dollars.
Rapid ROI shows manufacturing facilities can justify solar as a capital investment for their business.

3. Specialised (Cycling-Industry manufacturer) – Port Melbourne, VIC

Project Overview

System size: 39.6 kW
Annual generation: 47.32 MWh
Electricity cost before solar: $26,720; after solar: $17,770
Payback period: 45 months

Why it matters

Although smaller, this project depicts that solar energy is a viable option for manufacturing across various sizes
and sectors, even in facilities with a relatively small carbon footprint.

The case emphasises sustainability as a business value and how solar can support brand positioning as well as cost
savings.

Major Takeaways

Solar supports both cost and branding sustainability
goals.
Even medium-sized systems can provide meaningful savings.
The ROI
generated must be viewed in terms of both financial and reputational benefits for any
business, whether it’s large or small.

Is Now the Right Time for Manufacturers to Transition to Solar Energy?

After knowing the numerous benefits of solar solutions, you may be tempted to go solar. However, transitioning from
traditional energy sources to solar energy comes with a cost.

From government
incentives to long-term cost savings, the financial case for solar energy is compelling.

Still wondering, is it time for businesses to go solar? Here’s why you should act now:

Electricity prices continue to rise in many markets, strengthening the return on investment for solar
energy.
Many governments and utilities offer incentives, favourable tariffs, or rebates
for industrial solar projects.
Day by day, the pressure for sustainability reporting and corporate social responsibility (CSR) is
intensifying. Manufacturing facilities with high energy loads are often subject to inspection.
Technology costs have fallen recently, making solar panels and inverters
more affordable than ever and reducing payback time.
With the right sizing and execution, the solar system becomes a long-term asset that pays for itself,
releasing capital for other manufacturing investments.

Best Practices for Manufacturing Facilities Considering Solar

Solar can be a powerful game-changer for manufacturing companies and large commercial buildings when implemented correctly.

But that doesn’t mean it’s as easy as flipping the switch.

Therefore, before investing in Solar power, ensure you understand every step that leads to real savings and sustainable success for your business.

1. Conduct a detailed energy assessment & align solar to load

Before installation, it is essential to understand your manufacturing facility’s energy usage patterns, including the peak usage limit, daily load curves, and seasonal variations.

The better the match between system size, orientation, and actual usage, the higher the yield and the quicker the payback.

At Cyanergy, we provide a customised design based on site analysis.

2. Use staging or modular deployment

If you have a large manufacturing site, you may benefit from staging the solar solution in phases.

For example, in Uniplas’s case, the installation was divided into three stages. This enables access to multiple subsidies, enhances cash flow, and mitigates the risk of disruption.

3. Optimise your system size & measure consumption rate

Over-sizing or under-sizing can both cause significant loss in a business. Therefore, the design should minimise waste and maximise the use of solar energy on-site.

As in AC Laser’s mid-sized facility, a 99 kW system fits their load and delivers huge savings.

4. Check your rooftop or plant infrastructure

Is your rooftop compatible with solar panel installation?

For manufacturing facilities, factors such as roof strength, shading, orientation, structural constraints, and maintenance access are crucial.

Ensure the facility can support panels, inverters, wiring, and monitoring systems without compromising building aesthetics.

5. Perform regular monitoring & performance tracking

Everything requires a certain amount of care and maintenance to function properly over time. The story is the same for a solar panel system.

Real-time monitoring allows you to spot performance issues, shading effects, degradation, and inverter downtime.

Cyanergy emphasises continuous monitoring post-installation.

6. Research on financial modelling & payback analysis

When going for solar, always calculate realistic payback periods, ensure system cost fits within capital budgets,

You should also check the available incentives, tax benefits, payback time, and how to stack several rebates for maximum savings.

For example, many Cyanergy projects offer a 2–4 year payback, with several solar rebates that can be combined with the VEU Rebate.

7. Align with sustainability and your brand strategy

In manufacturing factories, incorporating solar energy can be a substantial component of a broader sustainability strategy. Why?

Solar reduces your dependency on harmful fossil fuels, cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

It positions your brand and promotes your business, demonstrating corporate responsibility and improving stakeholder perception.

8. Maintenance & lifecycle planning

Solar systems require periodic maintenance, inverter replacements, cleaning, and monitoring.

So, manufacturing facilities should incorporate service arrangements into their design. Plan for system longevity, degradation, and eventual replacement or upgrade to ensure optimal performance.

9. Consider adding Battery storage

Even though optional, integrating battery storage or demand management can enhance value by enabling peak shaving, reducing demand charges, and storing excess energy for nighttime use or during grid outages.

10. Engage stakeholders and minimise disruption

In manufacturing, you can’t easily stop production. Plan your solar installation during low-production periods, coordinate with your team, and prioritise safety to minimise downtime.

Final Notes: Ready To Take The Next Step?

For manufacturing facilities, solar power isn’t just about being eco-friendly; it’s a smart business move for Australians. Cyanergy’s case studies showed that even large manufacturers can achieve paybacks of 2–4 years, reduce costs, lower emissions, and enhance brand value.

With proper planning, energy assessment, correct system sizing, phased installation, and active monitoring, solar can deliver lasting benefits.

So, if rising energy bills or sustainability goals are on your radar, it’s time to view solar energy as an innovative manufacturing solution, apart from just a renewable energy source.

Reach out to Cyanergy, conduct an energy audit, and engage a solar specialist with manufacturing experience today. Cyanergy is here to help!