By Peter Newman, Curtin University The extent to which renewables should dominate Australia’s energy grids is a major issue in science and politics. Solar and wind are clearly now the cheapest form of electricity. But limits to these technologies can undermine the case for a renewables-only electricity mix. The challenges posed by solar and wind…
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With a few years of steady growth under his belt and some recent investments made to continue that, Manuko’s Matt Hardie puts a positive story down to a few simple things. (Sponsored article and podcast.) Manuko makes premium organic treats at a factory at Victoria’s Torquay. Sales began in 2012 from a one-bedroom apartment owned…
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In this, the third part of a series about Coalition plans for nuclear power in Australia, Peter Farley asks the question – How would we establish a nuclear power industry? It is often claimed that many countries are going nuclear and if Australia wants to be a ‘Developed Country’ we should have nuclear power. If…
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The state which blazed the trail for lithium ion grid scale batteries – South Australia with the Tesla big battery in 2017 – is to get a far bigger big battery. While the Hornsdale Power Reserve, as it is properly known, originally had 129 MWh of storage, a new battery in the state’s south east…
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Lithium ion battery materials group Lithium Australia and Mineral Resources (MinRes) will form a joint venture to commercialise the LieNA process to recover lithium from hard rock spodumene ores. The news comes after Lithium Australia completed the final stage of LieNA piloting activities at the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) which commenced in…
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More than 14,000 tonnes of soft plastics will be diverted from South Australian landfills every year, thanks to a $20 million investment in advanced recycling technology by the Australian Government. Recycling Plastics Australia in Kilburn will clean and purify soft plastics such as shopping bags, chip packets and food wrappers to create feedstock for new…
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What were the five biggest stories of the week? Here’s what visitors to @AuManufacturing were reading. 5) Fortescue backpedals on green hydrogen, heads downstream Andrew Forrest’s Fortescue has backpedaled on its ambitions in green hydrogen, reorganising the mining and energy company and focusing more on familiar downstream green energy opportunities. The company, which has taken what some…
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Visy officially opened a new $150 million investment at Penrith on Thursday, and says it is now running the country’s most energy-efficient glass furnace. Visy Chairman Anthony Pratt (pictured on right) said it is Australia’s first oxygen-only fuelled furnace, and uses less than half the energy than the one it replaced. This represented “saving enough…
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BHP sets new copper smelting records BHP has set new records for smelted copper production at its South Australian copper mines centred on the Olympic Dam mine, concentrator and smelter. The company achieved record copper mined and concentrate smelted at Olympic Dam in FY24 production was up by 39 per cent to 322kt in the…
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Eco Detection, which makes “lab-in-a-box” solutions for automated water quality monitoring, has announced an investment worth $10 million from London Stock Exchange-listed mining services company Capital Limited. In a statement on Friday, the Melbourne-based company said that its Ion-Q platform is currently gaining acceptance over a variety of water monitoring applications. Within mining it supports…
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