Efficiency

AI-native autonomous control platform for commercial and industrial buildings — using reinforcement learning and a universal hardware gateway to actively shape electrical demand, cut peak loads by 30%+ and deliver verified energy savings without disrupting operations.

Their insight, forged from direct experience with grid-constrained buildings, is that the energy transition is fundamentally a demand control problem: US commercial facilities waste an estimated $250B annually not because they lack power, but because legacy Building Management Systems are static, rules-based and incapable of adapting to real-time grid conditions. Demand charges alone can represent 30–40% of a facility's electricity bill. Brick's thesis is that an AI-native closed-loop control layer — sitting between existing BMS infrastructure and the grid — can structurally solve this.

The Brick platform has three interlocking components. A universal hardware gateway installs in under ten minutes and connects to any existing BMS or HVAC system regardless of brand — a deliberately brand-agnostic approach that incumbent vendors like Siemens and Schneider are structurally disincentivised to replicate, since their own business models depend on proprietary hardware lock-in. A reinforcement learning model then runs a continuous closed-loop optimisation, shaping electrical load in real time to stay within fixed grid limits while maintaining occupant comfort. ,

Air conditioning is responsible for roughly 15% of global electricity consumption and accounts for up to 60% of a commercial building's power use — yet the fundamental architecture of HVAC systems has remained largely unchanged for a century.

Conry Tech system is targeting commercial buildings and data centres, and their approach centres on decentralisation: instead of large centralised plant rooms serving entire buildings through long duct runs, their system places small, ultra-efficient modular units close to the zones they serve. This dramatically reduces the energy wasted moving conditioned air through buildings, and allows each zone to be controlled independently, improving both efficiency and occupant comfort.

Ron Conry is one of the most consequential inventors in the history of HVAC — responsible for the world's first modular chiller and, most significantly, the Turbocor oil-free magnetic bearing centrifugal compressor, the most important technological breakthrough in the industry in over 40 years. Turbocor became a global standard and is now a dominant technology worldwide and is estimated to have saved over a gigaton of CO₂ emissions.

Batteries are valuable because they provide flexibility, responding faster than other energy technologies, and help maintain grid stability by turning on and off in fractions of a second., Software contributes through improved grid performance, efficient integration of diverse energy sources, simulation and modelling of energy options, optimisation of building energy use (particularly HVAC systems), and guiding organizations in delivering emission reduction goals through accurate measurement and reporting.

Neara is a software company building physics-enabled digital twins for electricity grid infrastructure. The core idea is straightforward but technically formidable: take the fragmented, often inaccurate data that utilities hold about their transmission and distribution networks and combine it with engineering-grade physics simulation to create a geometrically precise, behaviourally accurate 3D model of an entire network. Every pole, tower, conductor, span and substation is modelled in a way that reflects how the real assets actually bend, sag and fail under load, heat, wind, flood and fire conditions.

That physics fidelity is the key differentiator. Neara's models simulate the real-world behaviour of assets rather than just recording their location and specifications. This lets utilities run what-if scenarios at whole-of-network scale: how does the grid respond to a Category 3 hurricane? Where are conductor clearances dangerously close to vegetation after a wet spring? Which spans have hidden thermal capacity that has never been used because conservative blanket standards were applied across the whole network?

Neara has modelled over 15 million infrastructure assets spanning more than 3 million kilometres across four continents. Its customer base includes ~90% of Australian network utilities (Ausgrid, Endeavour, Essential Energy, AusNet, SA Power Networks, Transgrid) and major international utilities including Southern California Edison, CenterPoint Energy (US), ESB Networks (Ireland), ScottishPower (UK) and Hedno (Greece).