“This is good news for homeowners, as houses and apartments that meet recommended air tightness levels are more comfortable, have lower energy bills and healthier indoor air quality,” according to the CSIRO, which also notes that “air tightness minimises unintended air movements within a building, preventing outdoor air from entering and indoor air from escaping.

“Poor air tightness can cause draughts, increasing energy bills by up to 20 per cent. Conversely, homes that are too airtight without controlled ventilation can lead to condensation, mould and health issues for residents such as headaches and nausea from higher carbon dioxide and monoxide levels. ”

The CSIRO says that researchers tested a total of 233 apartments and detached houses built in the last four years in Melbourne, Sydney Canberra, Brisbane and Adelaide., and homes specially designed for air tightness were excluded - and “while the research results were positive and compare well to standards in other countries like the UK, the study found room for improvement. ”

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Senior Experimental Scientist and project lead Michael Ambrose said the research used a blower door test to identify the leakage rate and determine where leakages occur.

“Leakages were found in most new homes, mainly from bathroom fans, sliding doors and poor or missing door seals,” Ambrose said.

“Some other homes, particularly apartments, were found to be extremely airtight, which can result in issues impacting building performance and resident health, if controlled ventilation is not included.

“Fortunately, there are simple and affordable ways to rectify these issues and preventative measures that can be implemented during construction."

The CSIRO notes that the report outlined a range of recommendations for Australian building codes to address common air tightness issues, including:

• establishing air tightness standards in the National Construction Code (NCC)
• requiring controlled ventilation in new buildings, particularly apartments to reduce indoor pollutants and moisture
• making air barriers, such as building wraps mandatory in all new residences
• providing on-site training and educational resources to connect builders with cost-effective solutions that improve building performance 

The study, funded by the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW) found that actual air tightness levels were closely aligned with those assumed by the Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme (NatHERS), which provides an energy efficiency star rating for residential buildings.

“This provides us with strong confidence that NatHERS is accurately predicting air tightness within specified levels,” Ambrose said.

“We see value in displaying air tightness values on NatHERS certificates and noting the impact on the star rating.

“But overall, our research found that new Australian homes are performing better than ever before."

Pure Storage CTO, International Alex McMullan has been visiting Australia to speak with customers and interested parties about their cloud journey. Pure Storage brings a lot of strength and expertise on this, including how to balance workloads across public and private clouds.

Where Pure Storage can also help is with cost-effective storage as a service (STaaS) and with sustainability. These are two conversations where Pure Storage is uniquely positioned, because the company has made these specific strategic focus areas, and dedicated significant thought, skill, and effort.

When it comes to STaaS, McMullan explains Pure Storage has "actual storage as a service" with a platform that brings automation and a full REST API, along with economic benefits.

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"Our STaaS brings cloud native behaviour and cloud consumption. We want to disrupt," he said. "Many large tech companies will utility and leasing, but that's just finance by a different vehicle."

"Pure Storage's view is we want to do STaaS properly. You pay for a service vs. an asset, and we retain the asset, but the customer pays on a schedule with the same freedom as you'd have with Azure, AWS, GCP, etc."

"You can consume our tech as you would the public cloud," McMullan said. "It's a market-leading position. Many competitors have made a model that looks a bit cloudy but it's not."

When it comes to sustainability, Pure Storage is bucking the trend of big tech firms, saying it has a part to play in aiding customers achieve their sustainability goal.

It's a common trend globally that AI - particularly Generative AI - has taken the world's imagination by storm. The message from technology providers is consistent: companies who embrace AI will lead, those who delay or ignore it will fall behind.

So, it's no surprise then that McMullan told iTWire no matter where he is in the world customers want to speak about how to adopt AI. However, McMullan notes, they want to adopt it sustainably.

Pure Storage knows what it's talking about; it partnered with Nvidia seven years ago, back in 2017, before AI was the fashion and trend we see today. "We produced the first AI storage platform," McMullan said, "and had a public relationship with Meta/Facebook for the same period."

It's embedded AI in its own products, bringing predictability into the storage array, as well as a copilot so storage administrators can ask natural language questions about the system's health and find solutions to problems.

Over the last two decades there has been an increasing awareness worldwide that energy consumption must be reduced. Tech firms stood up to the challenge, minituarising equipment, consolidating services, simplifying packaging, all with the aim to cut carbon emissions. Yet, it's as if this no longer mattered in some ways with today's demand for more and more GPUs to drive ever-increasingly power hungry generative AI.

While organisations everywhere are striving to set and hit environmental and sustainability goals, with committments to reduce their emissions, they are, at the same time, being lured in by the promise of super-capable AI, along with the threat if they don't embrace it, their business will become irrelevant.

Pure Storage is tackling this challenge in a number of ways, saying it has a sombre responsibility. "Big business wants to be as energy efficient as possible, and green is part of that," McMullan said. "If we, as suppliers, don't have things that use less energy and generate less carbon then we're part of the problem."

To tackle this, Pure Storage has made storage a circular economy. "We want to give customers freedom," McMullan said. "We try to recycle assets as they come back. We want more than 50% of our STaaS cloud to come from recycled assets."

"It sets us apart from the typical equipment journey of buying, returning, landfill."

Additionally, Pure Storage continues to explore the materials it uses. "A Pure Storage system of 40 to 50kg has about four to five kilograms of carbon embedded in it because of all the supply chain processes," McMullan said. "It's a big tech debt," he said, and explained the company is taking a leadership role in working with all its suppliers of silicon to embed less carbon in the chips they supply, which in turn diminishes the carbon that lands up with the end customer. "The chip vendors tell us we're the ones pushing the limit on this."

As well, "we've invested in a company working on laser-etched ceramic glass," McMullan said as one example. "We think things like that are interesting to long-term move away from silicon - not just to keep the status quo, but to improve."

In fact, with all these activities, Pure Storage has already reached 50% scoped year reductions in the carbon it embeds in its device, over the last three years. The company set their goal to 60% by 2030 and is ahead of that schedule.

Sustainability isn't simply a feel-good topic. For McMullan it's a serious issue. "AI will cost more coal, more CO2 - it's something we should push hard on," he said. Pure Storage takes it so seriously it has a lobby group inside the European Union to push power consumption in the right place.

Carbon emissions are important, but that's only one part of the problem. "Even in the EU the power grids built in the 1950s were designed for families having a cup of tea as they huddled around the radio."

"The average GPU-based system has eight GPUs in a single box from Nvidia, with each consuming enough power to run a four-person house. Each GPU system you turn on is the equivalent of eight houses. If hyperscalers are turning on half a million ... you do the maths," McMullan said. "It's quite frightening to think about the power budget.

With AI competing against carbon reduction across the world it's evident something will have to give, given the paucity of power supply around the world. "As AI takes off this creates a whole new set of pressures on the grid worldwide."

This is what Pure Storage and its CTO, International Alex McMullan spend their time thinking about. "Everyone in the industry is on the same path of building bigger systems and reducing costs, but we don't see this same innovation about energy and sustainability from our competitors," he said. "They'll recycle laptops and so on, but not in the foundational way we are applying to having a circular economy. We're pushing hard and as publicly as we can, from ESG reports through to conversations like this one."

"They'll talk about their super next box, but not what it means for carbon and the future of AI."

McMullan sees a huge opportunity for others in tech. For example, "In ANZ there's a unique opportunity for service providers like big telcos to build an AI service that's ethical and sustainable, without drawing on coal power," he said. "Maybe solar or hydro, after all, there's a lot of sunshine in Australia and New Zealand."

"We need different ways of thinking. There's a whole confluence of things where we can build sustainable AI facilities the right way and minimise our CO2 footprint."

In fact, we risk having a dystopian future of haves and have-nots where a whole series of countries could be left behind the AI wave because they lack a suitable power grid. "Some AI use cases will change the world - healthcare, genomic research, material science, and others," but with a distinct possibility these world-changing innovations cannot be realised everywhere, leaving countries left aside.

Energy is a challenge the world needs to solve. "It's not just a problem for Pure Storage; it needs tech vendors, it needs compliance," he said. "As a society, if we're not going to talk about having no power for two hours a day, then we all must collaborate and think about the solution."

It's all very sobering, and iTWire hears daily from companies of all types and industries about the amazing things AI can do. It's rare, however, to hear about the huge power consumption, and carbon production, all this AI is creating. Here, Pure Storage is certainly lifting the veil and revealing the risks behind.

Of course, while this has to be solved, there's no denying AI can help a business with cost agility, efficiency, customer service, CRM, and many, many things. Having GPUs is imperative, but right now "the supply chain is horrendous," McMullan said. "Even if you were given a big cheque, spending is hard with delivery dates extending out to six, nine, twelvem onths depending on who you know."

Thus, McMullan's recommendation for smart CIOs is to experiment in the cloud while having your own GPUs delivered. "Use the cloud to train, refine, and to drive cultural change. Then industrialise on-premises."

"You need a data-driven culture to be foundational in the way your company uses AI. Every division has its own data sets, statistics, messaging, and reporting, and all this has to be clean and managed with everyone doing it together, rather than saying I own this bit or that bit."

If you’re a homeowner with a solar system for your property, you might already know the benefits of investing in a solar battery. But there have actually been other recent advancements in solar energy storage that have greatly boosted the potential of renewable energy in Australia.

So where are we in our race to embrace renewables and make the switch to clean energy? Let’s find out, as we outline all the groundbreaking news we’ve seen coming out of Australia’s renewables sector over the past year.

What are Renewable Energy Sources?

As mentioned above, renewable energy sources are types of energy such as solar, wind and hydro. They are called renewable because their sources of energy - the sun, wind and water, are all part of the natural ecosystem that renew themselves after usage. Whereas fossil fuels, which are traditional energy sources, are burned and then disappear, leaving nothing behind but harmful emissions that cause global warming. 

While there are still some emissions associated with renewable energy, such as in the mining and development of materials to make solar panels, once they are created, they cause little to no emissions. The same applies to wind and hydro. They are also cheaper to run, maintain and repair when compared to fossil fuel power plants such as those that burn coal or gas. Furthermore, they are much safer than nuclear energy which carries a high risk factor and is also very expensive to establish. 

The Evolution of Public Opinions on Renewables

Renewable energy has always been a highly charged, politicised, contentious topic. In recent years, this same hot topic issue has been debated countlessly on the floor of Parliament as well as at your local pub – and of course, in internet comment sections across the globe. Those who lean towards the more progressive side of politics and social progress have usually been advocates and in favour of renewable energy, while those who lean conservative have doubted them or pushed for more fossil fuel mining and burning. 

However, in recent years, Aussie homeowners have been quick to take up solar panel installation incentives and rebates from state and federal governments because they can save money on their power bills. Solar energy is a great benefit to cutting down a power bill, especially during the peak of summer. Those who invest in a solar battery can also see longer benefits, being able to store the energy their solar panels generate and power their home even on overcast days. 

The recognition of cost savings in embracing renewables seems to have been the catalyst for many Aussie consumers, and even business owners, who swap out their bottom line approach for ESG-focused triple bottom lines that take into consideration environmental performance metrics like carbon emissions. With more consumers and business owners embracing sustainability initiatives, it’s safe to say that the public opinion regarding renewables has been in a state of flux, with financial incentives greatly propelling actors to take action. 

Breakthroughs in Solar Energy Storage

The last few years have seen significant breakthroughs in solar energy storage technology. Most notably, there have been some significant innovations in battery storage technology that have made solar battery storage more efficient, affordable and scalable. Some of the most notable innovations in battery technology for solar energy storage include the development of lithium-ion batteries, the type of rechargeable battery that powers electric vehicles and smart devices like IoT home and office tech.

There are other cutting-edge battery technology developments as well that may see solar batteries able to retain energy through winter, reducing the amount of grid power a home needs to draw on during the cold, overcast months. Several start-ups around the world, as well as established solar companies, are continuing to invest in solar battery storage innovations and increased capacity and energy retention.

The ongoing improvement of solar battery storage has also prompted state governments across Australia to invest in their own solar initiatives. In Victoria alone, there are ongoing projects to roll out solar systems that utilise innovative thermal water-based storage solutions for large civil engineering projects. These technologies will feasibly allow solar energy to be stored that can power infrastructure like street lights, digital signs on roadways, and even urban solar farms. The untapped potential of solar energy for powering green cities is likely to be a major focus of government agencies over the next decade or so as Australia continues to map out its greener future.

Public Opinion Swaying

Naturally, all these solar battery technologies and other energy storage and harvesting breakthroughs have swayed public opinion, with more people warming to the idea of renewable energy as a worthwhile investment. Surveys of the public in America have revealed that people have recognised some of the key benefits of investing in solar, including energy self-reliance, emissions reductions, and reliability of solar energy as a stored asset. The breakthroughs in solar batteries and storage solutions offer all of these, making not only the American public but also people across the globe more in favour of renewable energy as the technology progresses through innovation.

It’s clear to see that renewables are the way of the future, with investment in solar, wind and hydro likely to power the way forward for countries as they seek to divest from fossil fuels. Consumers are adopting renewables, too, with solar panels becoming more popular both in Australia and abroad. As solar storage evolves and improves, public opinion on renewables is being impacted, with more people opting for solar power to save money. However, the political spectrum greatly influences public opinion, with people’s political leanings playing into how much they support renewable energy. It’s likely that more investment and innovation in solar will see public opinion change further as renewable energy sources become the norm.

The agreement covers the development of new nickel laterite processing technologies for recovering nickel, an essential raw material in the manufacture of lithium-ion batteries.

Through this collaboration, Panasonic Energy and CSIRO are laying the groundwork for the future utilization of Australian nickel laterite resources and the creation of a low-cost, low-environmental-impact raw material and supply chain. The joint development leverages CSIRO's expertise in mineral processing and Panasonic Energy's extensive knowledge of battery materials. The goal is to strengthen Australia's nickel industry and secure high-quality nickel resources to meet the global demands of future battery production.

CSIRO excels in industrial technology development and is engaged in a wide range of research areas including agriculture, the environment, information technology, healthcare, materials, manufacturing, minerals, and energy. Leveraging its location in resource-rich Australia, it plays a leading role in in the research and technological development related to minerals.

In the current global market, while countries like Indonesia lead in nickel production, Australia boasts the world's second-largest reserves of the mineral. Given its significant lateritic reserves and the growing global demand for lithium-ion batteries, Australia has the potential to become a key player in producing nickel, a crucial cathode material especially for high-capacity batteries, using eco-friendly processes.

Panasonic Energy is committed to fostering collaborations like this one with CSIRO, driving advancements in the global lithium-ion battery industry, and ultimately contributing to a more sustainable society.

About Panasonic Energy
Panasonic Energy Co., Ltd., established in April 2022 as part of the Panasonic Group's switch to an operating company system, provides innovative battery technology-based products and solutions globally. Through its automotive lithium-ion batteries, storage battery systems and dry batteries, the company brings safe, reliable, and convenient power to a broad range of business areas, from mobility and social infrastructure to medical and consumer products. Panasonic Energy is committed to contributing to a society that realizes happiness and environmental sustainability, and through its business activities the Company aims to address societal issues while taking the lead on environmental initiatives. For more details, please visit https://www.panasonic.com/global/energy/.

About CSIRO
CSIRO is Australia’s national science agency and innovation catalyst. We solve the greatest challenges through innovative science and technology. Our collaborative research turns science into solutions for clean energy and resources; food security and quality; health and wellbeing; resilient and valuable environments; innovative industries; and a secure Australia and region. CSIRO has one of the largest minerals research and development groups in the world, with a proud track record in delivering innovation and solutions across the mineral resources value chain. CSIRO is working from exploration to processing and beyond, to maximise Australia’s position as a trusted global supplier of critical minerals and ensure success on the path to Net Zero. For more details, please visit https://www.csiro.au/en/about/people/business-units/mineral-resources.

Sphere aims to educate millions of people on the impact of their consumption on the environment and has a target to offset more than 6.5 million tonnes of CO2 by 2027 by facilitating and encouraging consumers to use its Carbon Insight and Action Solution.

CEO & Founder, Mr Jeroen van Son, said Sphere combines award-winning card payments technology developed in Australia with the research prowess of Swinburne University of Technology, which has joined as an equity partner in the company. The partnership seeks to continue to improve and innovate a carbon action solution using AI and machine learning.

The technology uniquely analyses the detail of a consumer’s everyday card spending to provide: 

1. an accurate estimation of their carbon footprint, supported by the AI and machine learning capabilities of Swinburne,  
2. tips on how to reduce emissions, and  
3. options to make micro investments in carbon reduction projects to live a carbon neutral life.

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Mr van Son said the technology will be offered to consumers via banking apps and at merchant check-out, with two large Asian banks already live in market.

“Around 70% of global emissions are generated by consumer buying behaviours, so broad adoption of this technology has the potential to make significant inroads into global emissions targets,” he said. “Giving people options to live a more sustainable lifestyle, as well as opportunities to offset the impact of their consumption, will create a better, more sustainable tomorrow.”

Sphere’s Chairman, Mr. Stephen Benton added: “We are in the enviable position of launching the brand in market with proven technology, an existing customer base, and an incredible research and equity partner in Swinburne University of Technology.”

Swinburne’s Vice-President of Innovation and Enterprise, Dr Werner van der Merwe, says the partnership with Sphere highlights the critical role of technology ventures in driving sustainability.

“Swinburne is defined by digital innovation and future-focused research that brings people and technology together for a better world. In partnership with Sphere, we’re proud to be a technological force for good, using state-of-the-art tech and research to drive sustainability impact at scale,” Dr van der Merwe says.

Swinburne’s Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Research, Professor Karen Hapgood, says the new partnership aligns strongly with the university’s Innovative Planet and Digital Capability flagship research areas.

“Our researchers will help deliver social and environmental impact through smart digital products that show the links between consumption and carbon emissions,” Professor Hapgood says.

“Using new AI-based methods to drive sustainability, our Digital Innovation Lab and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society (ADM+S) will improve estimates of carbon emissions from consumer spending, behavioural patterns and transaction data. We’ll also offer leadership in selecting best practice carbon offsets to drive genuine change on the path to net zero.”

Sphere director and Investment Director at Salter Brothers Equities, Mr Tineyi Matanda, said Sphere’s Carbon Insight and Action Solution had massive potential for growth as consumers, banks and merchants looked for better solutions for carbon insights and reduction.

“Salter Brothers has been a strong supporter of this market-leading fintech. Sphere is helping financial institutions and merchants to empower their customers to understand their CO2 impact for every purchase, and to offset their behaviour in real time,” Mr Matanda said.

“Sphere is partnering with Visa’s APAC & CEMEA regions, providing us with potential access to more than 200 million consumers in 100 markets, who can access various carbon offset projects of their choice.”

Recent surveys show that 95% of consumers consider the sustainability of a product to be important, with 62% of consumers willing to change their purchasing habits to help reduce environmental impact.

Sphere’s API and modular build allows financial institutions to integrate and differentiate easily to offer their customers the Carbon Insight and Action Solution via their apps.

The new funding signals a strong vote of confidence in the viability of MGA Thermal’s steam-dispatch thermal energy storage technology.

With a prior investment of $1.27 million from Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), MGA Thermal is primed to leverage this renewed support to resume the commissioning of its demonstration unit. ARENA’s increased support reaffirms MGA Thermal’s commitment to providing zero-carbon renewable energy storage for grid and industrial applications.

Addressing the progress of the company’s demonstration unit and support from ARENA, Mark Croudace, CEO of MGA Thermal, said: “The world’s Industrials are at a critical juncture in their renewable energy, decarbonisation journey, and we believe MGA Thermal will play a key role in enabling renewable generation to meet their needs.

“A behind-the-meter energy storage solution that helps balance utility-scale renewables with distributed energy storage is vital for Australia to effectively manage the evolving supply-demand dynamics of a clean energy future. With support from ARENA, we’re getting closer to recommissioning our demonstration unit and starting to scale up for commercial deployment.”

Commenting on ARENA’s continued support for MGA Thermal, Darren Miller, CEO of ARENA said: “At ARENA, we are committed to supporting companies with solutions for our energy transition. We prioritise projects with enduring impact and see the value in MGA Thermal’s technology for assisting large industrial players in decarbonising their processes.”

ARENA’s track record and continued commitment to driving innovation and growth in the renewable energy transition underlines its central role in meeting climate goals. Miller adds: “We are proud to continue supporting MGA Thermal’s technology development which we believe could have a significant impact on Australia’s renewable energy transition.”

MGA Thermal remains focused on addressing the challenges faced by hard-to-abate industries, recognising that distributed energy storage is vital for Australia and the world to effectively manage the evolving supply-demand dynamics of a clean energy future.

By storing and dispatching heat energy in the form of clean steam, MGA Thermal aims to offer sustainable alternatives to fossil fuel-dependent processes, complementing current renewable energy solutions with back-of-the-meter solutions that capture off-peak energy and optimise energy efficiency.

New Relic, the all-in-one observability platform for every engineer, published its State of Observability for Energy and Utilities report, which offers insights and analysis on the adoption and business value of observability for the energy and utilities industry. The report is based on insights from 132 technology professionals and was developed in association with the 2023 Observability Forecast. The report findings show energy and utilities organisations are investing in observability, particularly AIOps and mobile monitoring, to create real-time insights into their infrastructure and reduce outage costs and frequency.

The report highlights the importance of implementing observability, with 66% saying their organisation receives $1 million or more in total value from their observability investment per year—more than any other industry. Based on annual spend and annual value received estimates, energy and utilities organisations receive nearly a 3x median annual return on investment (ROI). The report findings also show that the energy and utilities sector see observability as integral to their business, with 50% of IT decision-makers noting that observability helps them establish a technology strategy.

“With some countries in the Asia Pacific region facing unprecedented energy crises, observability platforms are proving to be crucial for energy and utility providers. As uptime and reliability become paramount to avoiding service disruptions, implementing and maturing observability practices offers a clear path forward. By gaining greater visibility into their IT infrastructure, energy and utilities providers can achieve faster time to resolution for issues, ensuring the lights stay on and operations run smoothly," Peter Marelas, Chief Architect, APJ, New Relic.

AI adoption is on the rise

The powerful combination of observability and AI can support organisations to create a greater understanding of telemetry data and address the challenges associated with ever-expanding data sets. More than half (56%) of respondents from energy and utilities organisations reported having deployed AIOps capabilities, including anomaly detection, incident intelligence, and root cause analysis, with 89% planning to have AIOps deployed by mid-2026. AIOps can support energy and utilities organisations by contributing to operational efficiency and enabling faster response times. It helps teams gather actionable insights and supports decision-makers to uncover learnings regarding system performance; improving incident detection and resolution. 

Full-stack observability is key to outage reduction

Energy and utilities organisations experienced outages at a higher rate than all other industries, with 40% experiencing high-business-impact outages at least once a week, compared to the average of 32%. The median annual downtime for energy/utilities organisations was 37 hours, which is the highest by a considerable margin across all industries and 61% higher than the overall average of 23 hours. This downtime significantly impacts the bottom line for energy and utilities providers, with the median annual outage cost sitting at $34.31 million—the highest figure compared to all other industries.

The energy and utilities organisations that achieved full-stack observability saw substantial improvements to mean time to resolution (MTTR), which can support the reduction of outage costs. Some 87% of those with full-stack observability said MTTR improved to some degree since adopting observability, compared to 76% of respondents without full-stack observability. Additionally, while the proportion of energy/utilities respondents using a single tool has increased since last year, growing from 2% to 3%, the average number of tools has remained unchanged at six tools year-over-year. This indicates that providers are spending significant time and money tool-hopping to better understand the different aspects of their business and to resolve issues that lead to costly outages and poor customer experiences.

Security is the most widely deployed capability

Energy and utilities providers are prominent targets for cyberattacks, which underscores the importance of performant network, security, and infrastructure monitoring. Security monitoring was the most widely deployed capability for energy and utilities organisations at 68%, and by mid-2026, nearly all (99%) respondents expected to have deployed security monitoring. Furthermore, the top technology strategy or trend driving the need for observability amongst energy/utilities organisations was an increased focus on security, governance, risk, and compliance (44%).

For more information, view the State of Observability for Energy and Utilities report. 

Customer spotlight

A leader in the global energy industry, World Kinect looked to New Relic to create greater visibility into the health of its infrastructure and applications. Thanks to the partnership, its engineering team has cut downtime, reduced troubleshooting time by 75%, and is able to resolve issues faster. For more information, read the Kinect case study.

About New Relic

As a leader in observability, New Relic empowers engineers with a data-driven approach to planning, building, deploying, and running great software. New Relic delivers the only unified data platform that empowers engineers to get all telemetry—metrics, events, logs, and traces—paired with powerful full-stack analysis tools to help engineers do their best work with data, not opinions. Delivered through the industry’s first usage-based consumption pricing that’s intuitive and predictable, New Relic gives engineers more value for the money by helping improve planning cycle times, change failure rates, release frequency, and mean time to resolution. This helps the world’s leading brands including adidas Runtastic, American Red Cross, Australia Post, Banco Inter, Chegg, GoTo Group, Ryanair, Sainsbury’s, Signify Health, TopGolf, and World Fuel Services (WFS) improve uptime, reliability, and operational efficiency to deliver exceptional customer experiences that fuel innovation and growth. www.newrelic.com.

Since launching in 2020, CSIRO says the Innovate to Grow program has equipped over 600 SMEs with the knowledge and tools to explore research and development (R&D) opportunities, and to develop actionable R&D business and funding plans.

CSIRO has now partnered with Trailblazer for Recycling and Clean Energy (TRaCE) to deliver the new Innovate to Grow: Clean Energy program - the free online program will provide Australian SMEs a supportive environment with expert facilitators, experienced researchers and self-paced deliverables to guide successful applicants through their technical or business challenges.

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Professor Emmanuel Mastio, Executive Director of TRaCE said SMEs, scaleups and startups are key to building sovereign supply chains on Australia’s path to a clean energy economy.

“We need to bring our universities into the fold and see a shift in our approach where SMEs and industry are provided greater support to commercialise their innovations and de-risk investment at speed," Professor Mastio said.

“At TRaCE, we are extremely focused on emissions reductions and our path to Net Zero. We jumped at the opportunity to extend our ecosystem of support through CSIRO’s Innovate to Grow program’s Clean Energy series.”

CSIRO’s Director of Energy, Dr Dietmar Toubier said Australia is well positioned to establish itself as a global leader in clean energy.

“We have all the ingredients here in Australia for the critical energy minerals that are required to power the clean energy transition,” Dr Toubier said.

"There’s an International Energy Agency (IEA) analysis that shows Australia can have the lowest cost clean energy of all OECD countries – we want to help achieve that.”

The CSIRO says that SMEs play a crucial role in driving innovation, especially in the clean energy sector - and their agility and innovative approaches are vital in developing sustainable solutions and accelerating the transition to a cleaner energy future.

Fionna Millikan, Head of Business Development from Green Gravity, participated in CSIRO’s 2023 Innovate to Grow: Energy program. She said the practical advice helped her business to generate new opportunities.

“The program was very practical and hands-on. [Our facilitator] Tony was an excellent steward and mentor, provided valuable advice, and connected me with potential research partners,” Millikan said.

Innovate to Grow: Clean Energy is open to SMEs working in the following sub-sectors:

• Energy storage
• Electrification
• Energy modelling and integrated systems
• Carbon management
• Renewable energy
• Renewable heat
• Sustainable fuels
• Other 

Applications close on 23 June 2024

- Learn more and apply for the ‘Innovate to Grow’: Clean Energy program, or discover more programs for SMEs. 

CSIRO says TRaCE is delivered by UNSW and the University of Newcastle and supported by the Commonwealth Government, and it aims to partner with and support industry, research and education partners to fast-track energy transition.

The RMIT University engineers collaborated with Visy – Australia’s largest recycling company – to make bricks with a minimum of 15% waste glass and 20% combusted solid waste (ash), as substitutes for clay.

RMIT says test results indicate that using these bricks in the construction of a single-storey building could reduce household energy bills by up to 5% compared to regular bricks, due to improved insulation - and replacing clay with waste materials in the brick production helped reduce the firing temperature by up to 20% compared with standard brick mixtures, offering potential cost savings to manufacturers.

Team leader Associate Professor Dilan Robert said about 1.4 trillion bricks were used in construction projects globally every year.

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“Business-as-usual brick production produces harmful emissions – including carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide and chlorine – and puts a serious strain on our natural resources, particularly clay,” said Dilan, from RMIT’s School of Engineering.

The team’s latest research is published in the international journal Construction and Building Materials, with the research showing the new bricks have enhanced energy efficiency through improved thermal performance, and met stringent structural, durability and environmental sustainability standards.

RMIT says the technology has met the key compliance requirement of fired clay bricks set by Standards Australia (AS 3700).

“Bricks play a key role in preventing energy loss from buildings,” Robert said.

“We can also produce light-weight bricks in a range of colours from white to dark red by changing our formulations.”

Dr Biplob Pramanik, the RMIT team’s environmental engineer, said the new bricks were safe to use in construction projects.

“Our bricks, manufactured from industry waste, meet state environmental regulations,” he said.

In Victoria, Visy recycles glass packaging back into new bottles and jars. However, glass pieces smaller than 3mm – referred to as fines – cannot be recycled into bottles.

“We are focusing on scaling up the production process to facilitate the commercialisation of our innovative bricks in collaboration with brick manufacturers in Melbourne,” Robert said.

Paul Andrich, Innovation Project Manager at Visy, said the company was thrilled to find a solution for material that cannot be recycled into food and beverage packaging.

“Diverting this waste into bricks with added insulation, rather than landfill, is another way we are powering the circular economy," he said.

RMIT says the research team wants to collaborate with industries to explore applications of waste material in other construction products.

Epson says it hopes to have the plant in operation in the 2026 fiscal year (ending March 2027) and is moving to secure the land and buildings, contract construction and file the paperwork for power generation.

Epson notes that it publicly committed to becoming carbon negative and underground resource free1 in Environmental Vision 2050, and says the use of renewable electricity is a key means by which Epson “seeks to reach its goal of decarbonisation and, in December 2023, Epson completed the switch to 100% renewable electricity at all Epson Group sites2 around the world”.

The new power plant is intended to provide Epson with self-generated renewable electricity on a continuous basis and reduce the ratio of electricity the company purchases from external power companies, thereby promoting wider public adoption of renewable electricity.

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Epson plans to construct the plant on the site of the former Kiribayashi Clean Centre, which the Minami Shinshu Wide-Area Union shut down in December 2017.

Epson says the electricity generated will be sold to the market under a feed-in premium (FIP) scheme3 and it will convert the electricity that it uses into renewable electricity by leveraging the environmental value created through power generation - and moreover, the power is expected to be supplied to local facilities in the event of a disaster or other emergency.

“The power plant will not depend on fossil fuels. It will be fuelled primarily by unused wood from the Minami Shinshu area, as well as by materials such as tree bark, mushroom culture medium and some waste wooden pallets from Epson. By utilising wood and bark from neglected forests, Epson will also be contributing to forest maintenance,” notes Epson.

“Construction of this power plant will increase the ratio of self-generated power and meet the technical criteria of RE100, which emphasises additionality.

“In the future, Epson aims to create a closed-loop power plant, including by developing technology for the fixation and utilisation of CO2 produced during power generation.

Epson will continue to promote the wide-spread adoption of renewable electricity, reduce its energy consumption, and circulate resources on its way to realising its Environmental Vision 2050,” Epson concluded.

1 Free of non-renewable resources such as oil and metals
2 Excludes some sales sites and leased properties where the amount of electricity consumed cannot be determined
3 Unlike in a feed-in tariff (FIT) scheme, where electricity is purchased at a fixed price, in a FIP scheme renewable electricity producers that sell electricity on a wholesale market, for example, receive a premium on top of the selling price. This helps to promote the adoption of renewable electricity.