Most of the world's battery storage runs on hardware and firmware that Australia does not control. More than 70% of the global battery supply chain sits with China, and the firmware and control software that governs how a battery operates is almost always foreign-authored. For a household, that is a commercial detail. For a defence base, a hospital, a communications network or the grid, it is a strategic exposure.
The concern is not just supply. A battery's firmware controls how it charges, discharges, reports and responds. Whoever writes and maintains that software has visibility into the system, and in some cases the ability to influence it. In a conflict or a supply disruption, dependency on foreign-controlled energy technology stops being a risk to manage and becomes a vulnerability to exploit. Allied nations have started acting on this, tightening procurement to exclude components they cannot verify.
Aurora Advanced Technologies was set up to close that gap. Its Battery Program takes proven commercial battery hardware and replaces the vendor firmware and control software with code authored in Australia. The hardware is not the differentiator; the control layer is. By owning that layer, Aurora turns an off-the-shelf system into one that is Australian-built, Australian-controlled, and free of foreign visibility from top to bottom.
To do that credibly, the firmware and the claims that come with it have to be developed and tested to a research standard. That is where Murdoch University comes in.
Murdoch is the research partner behind the Battery Program. The university contributes engineering capability, research infrastructure and independent validation, working with Aurora on the firmware and control software architecture and on verifying how the system performs in the field. Its involvement gives the program both technical depth and institutional weight, which matters in defence and critical infrastructure markets where buyers do not take sovereignty claims on trust.
The work is running to a clear pathway. The research program is underway, with hardware selection and firmware architecture being settled through 2026, followed by a prototype build, performance testing conducted with Murdoch, and a first pilot deployment with a defence or critical infrastructure customer.
Professor Peter Eastwood, Deputy Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation at Murdoch University commented:
“Murdoch University is excited to partner with RLG to support the development andvalidation of Australian-designed battery management and inverter control technologies for localoperating conditions. Led by Professor Chris Lund and our renewable energy research team, this collaboration brings together research expertise and industry capability to accelerate the deployment of scalable energy solutions for remote, off-grid and grid-connected communities, while strengthening Australia's sovereign energy innovation capability.”
Monday 27th July 2026
Aurora and Murdoch University partner to build a sovereign-secure battery
