EcoJoule Energy has announced the first export of its Australian-manufactured EcoVAR low-voltage distribution STATCOM to Portugal, marking the company’s entry into the European market as it expands the international reach of its locally made grid technology.
In a news release, the company said the 40 kVAR three-phase EcoVAR units were manufactured at its Brisbane facility and shipped this month. With the latest export, EcoVAR technology is now operating across four continents: Oceania, Asia, the Middle East and Europe.
According to EcoJoule Energy, the export follows the company’s $15 million capital raise completed in 2025, led by Ellerston Capital and Fifth Estate Asset Management, with a $3 million investment from the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) through its Powering Australia Technology Fund.
The company said the funding has supported increased manufacturing capacity, inventory and commercial operations to meet growing domestic and international demand.
CEFC Head of Growth Capital Malcolm Thornton said the investment was intended to help the Australian company expand its technology to new markets.
“We backed EcoJoule through the Powering Australia Technology Fund to help a market-leading Australian technology company scale up and get its grid solutions to more customers. Seeing that technology now exported to Europe shows Australian clean energy innovation competing on the world stage, and at the same time helps networks here at home and abroad integrate more renewable energy,” Thornton said.
EcoJoule said the EcoVAR is a low-voltage distribution STATCOM designed to provide dynamic reactive power, balance loads across phases and filter harmonics on distribution networks.
The company said the technology can be installed without interrupting network supply and is intended to help electricity distributors maintain voltage within required limits while enabling greater rooftop solar connections without conventional network upgrades.
Founder Dr Mike Wishart said the technology was developed after identifying voltage challenges associated with increasing rooftop solar generation while working at an electricity utility.
“I started EcoJoule after seeing, at a utility, how quickly rising solar exports push voltage outside limits on the low-voltage network. The EcoVAR was designed to correct that at the point where it occurs, without taking customers off supply. The CEFC backing has helped us take that technology from Australia to the world,” Wishart said.
Chief Commercial Officer Martin van der Linde, who recently joined the company to lead its global market development, said Portugal represented the latest market to adopt the technology.
“Portugal is the newest market to adopt the EcoVAR, and it shows technology designed and built in Australia is competitive globally. With CEFC’s support behind our scale-up, our task is to keep making it straightforward for networks anywhere to access it,” van der Linde said.
