A USA startup has come up with a commercial process to swap silver paste in solar panels for copper—known as “CuBert”—with impressive results and new investors. Co-founded in 2015 by an engineering professor and a post-doctoral researcher at Kentucky’s University of Louisville, Bert Thin Films is on a mission to promote copper paste as a […]
Are Aussie Homes “Glorified Tents”?
Aussie homes are being called “glorified tents” costing residents hundreds more on their energy bills each year as pressure grows to build in higher efficiency standards. That chance comes this July when the country’s building ministers get together to review possible changes to the National Construction Code—NCC—which is only done once every 3 years. I […]
Time To Float The Energy
Energy is big news these days for all sorts of good and bad reasons, but a new report suggests we could be doing a lot more with offshore wind to decarbonise the world. The Global Wind Energy Council-GWEC-has just published a snapshot setting out big opportunities for floating offshore wind for countries across the globe. […]
Clean Energy Exports Edge Closer
An ambitious $30B project to produce up to 20GW of solar energy and export it to South East Asia gets $210M boost on way to reality. The plan to build a giant solar farm in the Northern Territory is expected to cover 12,000 hectares capable of producing 17-20 GW of solar generation backed up with […]
Electric Cars Are “Inevitable”
A new study out of Europe says the global take up of electric vehicles by consumers is inevitable and already underway. But it still seems a distant story here in Australia. The authors of the Element Electric report say it’s expected that battery electric vehicles—or BEVs—will become the most demanded engine across Europe from 2025. […]
Materials Movement Is Next Zero Emissions Priority
Hard on the heels of COP26, the UN’s Climate Change Conference that attracted global attention, we’re doing our own bit to cut emissions. We’ve just launched the third deep tech research project—Materials Movement—as part of our ongoing Zero Emissions Copper Mine of the Future initiative. Materials Movement, which will start early next year, will take […]
Low Cost Solar Gets Copper Breakthrough
Australian startup Sundrive creates world’s most efficient commercial-sized solar cell by replacing expensive silver with affordable copper during manufacturing. Efficiency is a big deal when it comes to solar and refers to the amount of power you generate based on the amount of sunlight coming in. A decade ago commercial-sized solar cells had an efficiency […]
Carbon Neutral Copper Mines Start With Water
A new global Water Report outlining how copper mines can embrace sustainable water use to help meet a carbon free future was launched at South Australia’s “Copper To The World” Conference yesterday. Sponsored by copper miners Sandfire Resources and Anglo American, the International Copper Association Australia and the Global Copper Alliance, the report is part […]
Clean Mines, Clean World?
Recently Bernstein, a research company, estimated that the world’s offshore wind capacity could hit 254 Giga Watts by 2030, seven times what it is today. That is world changing. Already many developed and developing countries, including Australia, are announcing new projects, some of them absolutely massive with towering, high tech turbines. The cost of wind […]
“Green Copper” Fuels Brave New World
Fitch Solutions has put copper on its “Commodities of the Future” Index, saying that the world’s ‘green transition’ will mean “a surge in demand over 2021-2030”. Demand for copper will come from three broad categories of building construction, infrastructure and manufacturing, but Fitch says that green copper demand will increasingly come from the energy and automotive sectors. They […]
Aussie Copper Home Is Standout
Australian architectural studio Casey Brown Architecture has recently completed an unusual corrugated copper tiny home two hours from Sydney. “Permanent Camping 2” in the Berry countryside has a two-story tower structure clad in copper designed to withstand bushfires, gale-force winds and driving winds. The external sides to pen up the home to the outdoors, while […]
Copper Takes Aim At Future
A new infographic from the International Copper Association shows how copper is essential to life. From technology to energy, manufacturing, communication and mobility copper is the world’s hardest working metal. Click on link below to view infographic. ICA-Infographic-Essentiality-202004-R2
