SunTech Drive to partner with Stanford, Google

BOULDER — SunTech Drive LLC is partnering with Stanford University and Google for an energy-related Internet of Things project.

The project, which is tied to the Department of Energy’s NODES (Networks of Distributed Energy Systems) initiative, will coordinate and control consumer loads and distributed-energy resources out to the edge of the grid. SunTech Drive’s Pico family of universal variable-speed motor controllers will be the end nodes driving each of the individual loads and upgrading installed systems to “smart” loads.

“I am glad that SunTech Drive joined Stanford University and Google in this DOE funded initiative to advance the state of the art in the area of distributed energy systems,” Ana Radovanovic, a Google research scientist, said in a prepared statement. “The envisioned technology could revolutionize the IoT control in the domain of electric motors, by enabling a bi-directional, cloud-based, communication and control for a wide variety of residential and industrial loads.”

SunTech is a Boulder-based energy-tech company that has gone through the Innosphere incubator. The company makes products that offer full Internet of Things and solar-ready variable frequency drives. They work with any electric motor, regardless of the voltage, phase of frequency. The universal motor controllers also support multiple sensors, which makes every motor able to be an intelligent distributed energy end node. The products can be used for applications including livestock cooking, water pumping and in oil and gas installations.

“We are very excited to be partnering with such notable partners on a project with vast implications for the future of the grid,” said John LoPorto, CEO of SunTech Drive, in a statement.

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