Rescuing the Productivity Commission from itself – By Phillip Toner and Roy Green

With the federal government moving to reform its economic advisory body, the Productivity Commission, attention has turned to the outcome of the PC’s decades-long dominance of policy advice to the government – a fragile and narrowly-based resources-driven economy. Here, Phillip Toner and Roy Green outline why the PC must be fundamentally changed. As federal Treasurer…

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BluGlass launches laser diode range at US industry event

ASX-listed semiconductor company BluGlass has used the SPIE Photonics West industry conference in San Francisco to release their first collection of gallium nitride (GaN) laser products. In an announcement on Monday morning (Sydney time), BluGlass said the six products newly-available to commercial customers range across the 405, 420 and 450 nanometre wavelengths and had passed…

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Vast Solar gets Australia and German backing for methanol project

Concentrated solar thermal power (CSP) company Vast Solar, and the Solar Methanol Consortium have been selected to receive $19.48 million (EUR13.2 million) from an Australian-German collaboration fund, HyGATE, to develop a world-first green methanol demonstration plant, SM1 in Port Augusta in South Australia. Methanol is the most versatile hydrogen derivative which, if produced using clean…

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