What were the five biggest stories of the week? Here’s what visitors to @AuManufacturing were reading. 5) Australian hive harvesting innovator wins gold at World Beekeeping Awards HiveKeepers, a company that is commercialising a new method of harvesting honey for hobbyists and beekeepers after five years of R&D, has won the top prize for innovation at…
By Bruce Mountain, Victoria University Two years ago, Snowy Hydro announced a reset for its troubled Snowy 2.0 giant pumped hydro project amid cost blowouts. The supposed final cost was A$12 billion. Last week, Snowy Hydro acknowledged this figure was no longer viable after a cost reassessment. I estimate the final cost will be well…
Faltering business expenditure on R&D is a major factor in Australia’s poor innovation performance. Today in our editorial series – Towards 3% R&D – Turbocharging Australia’s Innovation Effort – Dr John Howard identifies businesses’ failings. This is an edited excerpt (full paper link below). From 1981 to 1995, Australian businesses made steady progress in lifting…
By Bruce Mountain, Victoria University Last night ABC’s Four Corners investigated the problem-plagued Snowy 2.0 pumped hydro power station, focusing on a bogged tunnelling machine, toxic gas and an unexpected volume of sludge. While these specific problems are new, we have criticised this project since 2019 and outlined six key problems even earlier elsewhere. How…