Overview
The latest SunSpec webinar, Unlocking Modbus: Accelerate Adoption with SunSpec DevKit and Open-Source Tools, brought together leading open-source technologists to address one of the solar industry’s most persistent challenges: transforming raw Modbus data into usable, secure, and interoperable information streams. Niels Basjes, a cybersecurity innovator with Bol., presented the Modbus Schema Toolkit—a dynamic solution that generates machine-readable schemas to standardize device communications across solar and DER systems. Peter Grace, DevOps Engineer at StackBlitz, introduced Sunspec RS and Sunspec Gateway, two MIT-licensed tools built in Rust that simplify Modbus TCP integration and enable seamless data streaming into MQTT platforms like Home Assistant.
Vish Ganti, President and COO of DER Security Corp, unveiled the upcoming SunSpec DevKit, which unifies these open-source tools into a single platform for schema querying, parameter adjustments, and model exports. The webinar also marked the launch of the new EIoT Open-Source Lab—funded by the Astera Institute and hosted at Port Labs—to foster collaboration around DER development. With the SunSpec Modbus Workgroup advancing Modbus TLS compliance and security standards, the session emphasized a growing industry shift toward secure, open, and scalable tools for DER integration.
