Best of the week — the five most popular stories among readers, April 22 – 26, 2024

What were the five biggest stories of the week? Here’s what visitors to @AuManufacturing were reading.

5) Boeing and Wagner join to manufacture and utilise sustainable aviation fuels

Australian infrastructure, property development and investment management company Wagner has joined with Boeing to grow the sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) industry to help meet Australia’s airline demand for jet fuel.

With demand set to grow 75 per cent over the next 25 years Wagner, which owns the Wellcamp Business Park and Toowoomba Wellcamp Airport in Queensland, has established Wagner Sustainable Fuels to advance the project.

Boeing Australia, New Zealand & South Pacific sustainability lead Kim Camrass aid: “Wagner’s sustainability goals align with Boeing’s work to advance aviation decarbonisation and energy security through renewable energy including SAF, advanced technologies, operational efficiency, and fleet renewal.

4) Towards 3% R&D – the role of industry policy

While lacking detail at this stage, the significance of Prime Minister Albanese’s Future Made in Australia announcement should not be underestimated, writes Roy Green.

It is a timely recognition at the highest levels of government that ‘old orthodoxies’ have failed to shift the dial on stalled productivity, wage stagnation and energy transition.

We now have the prospect of a more coordinated approach to the revival and reinvention of our manufacturing capability.

3) Towards 3% R&D – Boosting industry and research collaboration

If Australia is to turbocharge our R&D to reach 3% of GDP, businesses will have to do most of the heavy lifting, writes Dr Tony Peacock.

Our Business Expenditure on R&D (BERD) has always lagged behind where we should be as an advanced economy. Governments can help in several ways.

A key to improving overall R&D outcomes in Australia is better linking our research sector to our businesses.

2) $330 million in grants to decarbonise heavy industry

The federal government has announced $330 million in grants for clean energy and emissions reduction projects at heavy industrial sites around the country.

The government’s Powering the Regions Fund is supporting nine projects  ranging from powering mine sites with renewables, eliminating the use of coal in iron pellet production, trialling the use of biocarbon in metal smelting and cutting energy use in making alumina and cement.

The Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen made the announcement today at Cement Australia’s Railton facility in Tasmania (pictured) which will receive $52.9 million to upgrade their kiln and increase the use of alternative fuels such as waste to reduce emissions.

1) No mention of industry in Australia’s biggest ever tender for renewable power

The federal government has accelerated the roll out of renewable power generation and storage with the country’s biggest ever tender, writes Peter Roberts.

But despite Canberra’s plans for a Future Made in Australia, there was no mention of a role for local industry in the announcement made on Monday.

Picture: credit Cement Australia