EcoJoule Energy has completed the first export of its EcoVAR low-voltage distribution STATCOM to Portugal, opening a new European market for the Australian manufacturer.
The 40 kVAR three-phase units were built at the company’s Brisbane facility and dispatched this month. With the sale, EcoVAR technology is now in service across four continents — Oceania, Asia, the Middle East and Europe.
The export milestone follows a $15 million capital raise EcoJoule completed in 2025, led by Ellerston Capital and Fifth Estate Asset Management, and including a $3 million commitment from the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) through its Powering Australia Technology Fund.
The investment has supported EcoJoule to build manufacturing capacity, inventory and its commercial team, the foundations for meeting demand at home and, increasingly, overseas.
The EcoVAR is a low-voltage distribution STATCOM. It supplies dynamic reactive power, balances load across phases and filters harmonics directly on the distribution network.
It installs without a network outage, and helps distributors hold voltage within limits and connect more rooftop solar to existing feeders, deferring or avoiding conventional network augmentation.
Dr Wishart developed the EcoVAR after observing voltage problems firsthand while working at an electricity utility, drawing on a career formerly leading research and development for global multinational electrical companies.
“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.”
Mr van der Linde recently joined EcoJoule as Chief Commercial Officer to lead the company’s global market development.