Construction begins on Latrobe Valley coal-to-hydrogen plant
A brown coal-to-hydrogen pilot at Loy Yang Power Station, Victoria was launched last week.
Another COAG meeting, another limp swing at the waste problem
By Trevor Thornton, Lecturer, School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Deakin University A meeting on Friday between state and federal environment ministers to discuss Australia’s recycling and waste crisis has been disappointingly inconclusive. Some targets were set for banning the export of various used materials: glass exports will be banned by July 2020 and mixed…
Smaller manufacturers and the big challenge of digitalisation
It’s been said that Australia’s population of enterprises has a “missing middle.” Within manufacturing, there is certainly a heavy weighting towards the smaller end of town. A count published in the Australian Industry Group’s Australian Manufacturing in 2019 report found that of 47,530 employing companies, 87 per cent were between 1 and 19 employees…
THC Global set to manufacture medicinal cannabis in Queensland
Medicinal cannabis producer THC Global (ASX: THC) is to begin production at its Southport manufacturing facility following the issue of permits from Australia’s Office of Drug Control (ODC). CEO Ken Charteris revealed in a statement this morning the issue of permits covering production from licensed and permitted medicinal cannabis growers, including from the Company’s own…
Profiles of success – MtM automotive
By Peter Roberts The loss of Australia’s car industry was not the blow anticipated because of people like Mark Albert of MtM automotive. The Melbourne supplier of doorchecks and other body components foresaw the demise of the sector and set about creating a future for themselves in global markets. Doorchecks may seem like a trivial…
Austal delivers ships on global scale
International shipbuilder Austal (ASX: ASB) is building and delivering ships on a global scale with two passing customer milestones in the past few days. The Perth-based company delivered its fifth Guardian Class patrol boat built in Perth in less than a year to the Solomon Islands government, a gift from the Australian Government. The 39.5…
Ceres Tag teams with Globalstar to trial cattle monitoring
By Stuart Corner Ceres Tag, an Australian company that has developed a smart ear tag for monitoring cattle, has formed a partnership with US based satellite operator Globalstar to conduct the final stages of large-scale commercial trials of its technology for the provenance and management of livestock. Globalstar said the trials would be a significant…
Wind and solar cement energy cost advantage even over marginal cost of coal
The cost of generating electricity from onshore wind and solar installations continued its cost advantage over fossil fuel generation in the latest edition of Lazard’s Levelized Cost of Energy Analysis. The well regarded analysis noted onshore wind and utility-scale solar became cost-competitive with conventional generation several years ago on a new-build basis. In its 2019…