Electrical engineering business Ampcontrol has announced the appointment of Director of Operations Alan Foster (pictured) to the new Executive Director role, which the company says will strengthen its manufacturing and see Foster “act as a conduit between the Ampcontrol Board and day-to-day operations”. In a statement on Thursday, Ampcontrol said Foster currently oversees manufacturing operations…
Bills to establish a Net Zero Economy Authority and Net Zero Economy Agency to guide industry and the economy’s transition to net zero emissions have passed the Senate and will soon be signed into law. The Bill establishes a new independent statutory authority to promote orderly and positive economic transformation as the world decarbonises. Billed…
By Bruce Mountain, Victoria University Imagine if Australian cities became major producers of clean energy, rather than relying on far-flung solar and wind farms. Far fetched? Hardly. Our cities and towns are full of warehouses, commercial areas, shopping centres and factories. These types of buildings have one very important underutilised resource – large expanses of…
By Professor Akbar Rhamdhani You might not know it, but critical minerals are the hidden engine powering our daily lives. They drive the functionality of our electronics, medical devices and renewable energy systems. Without them, our world would grind to a standstill and the technology we rely on every day, such as smartphones and laptops,…
A new project by University of Wollongong (UOW) researchers to develop battery systems that can withstand extremely cold temperatures, including in outer space, has been awarded a national grant. Professor Jung Ho Kim (pictured) and Professor Konstantin Konstantinov of the Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences received a National Intelligence and Security Discovery Research Grant…
Bushmaster armoured vehicles arrive in Fiji The Minister for Defence Industry Pat Conroy has taken to social media to celebrate the successful export of Thales‘ Bendigo, Victoria manufactured Bushmaster Infantry Mobility Vehicles. Conroy released photographs of the vehicles on the ground in Fiji (pictured) and said: “Great to see 14 Australian made bushmasters delivered to…
By Dylan McConnell, UNSW Sydney Coal will no longer be burned for power in Australia within 14 years. To replace it will require faster deployment of solar and wind, storage, new transmission lines and some firming gas capacity. That’s a very brief summary of a large and influential document – the Integrated System Plan issued by…
By Hanqin Tian, Boston Coll ege; Eric Davidson, University of Maryland, Baltimore; Pep Canadell, CSIRO, and Rona Louise Thompson, Norwegian Institute for Air Research Food’s role in climate change has emerged as one of the defining challenges of our time. The journey of a steak, fruit or salad from the vast expanses of agricultural lands…
A world-first mobile lightweight CT brain scanner (pictured) is set to be tested in two major hospitals as two companies zero in on the promise of stroke diagnosis at the point of treatment – including in an attending ambulance. Cold cathode X-ray manufacturer Micro-X will begin clinical trials this year at Royal Melbourne Hospital and…
South Australian households to take to smart energy appliances Five hundred South Australian households are set to go energy-smart in a new project announced by the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) and electricity distributor SA Power Networks. ARENA is providing $6.2 million to SA Power Networks’ $13.8 million ‘Energy Masters’ project. The project will see…
