Old EV batteries on the way to power everything
Australia is one step closer to repurposing old, inefficient EV batteries into home batteries, with researchers now looking into pathways to make it commercially viable.
Flinders University researchers are now working with Mitsubishi Motors Australia, ResourceCo and other industry partners to make it viable to repurpose end of life electric and plug in hybrid vehicle batteries – something previously reserved for specialists and tinkerers.
The research is being supported by the Green Industries SA grant.
Last year, auction house Pickles said it was selling around 100 salvaged EVs every month, which experts say, at 70 per cent capacity, was perfect for a solar system. The university said repurposed batteries could be used for lighting, water pumping, energy storage and reduce reliance on diesel generators.
Melbourne residents sound alarm over massive diesel data centre
Inner west Melbourne residents are demanding the Victorian Planning Minister Sonya Kilkenny intervene and strip 112 backup diesel generators from a proposed $2 data centre in Brooklyn, that gained fast track approvals through the state’s Development Facilitation Program (DFP).
While the initial stage will sit within 500 metres of residential properties, the planned stage 2 expansion will bring the massive facility within just 200 metres of a local primary school – raising community concerns over the unprecedented volume of localised mechanical noise and carcinogenic diesel particulate emissions.
The community is demanding the minister unconditionally refuse any stage 2 expansions and completely remove the diesel generators from the design and force the developers to pivot to zero emission, battery energy storage infrastructure.
The local Hobsons Bay City Council has recently voted to call on the Minister to stop the 11 hectare development entirely after officers were only given 14 days to review the massive development. Families said they were furious that the government was fast tracking a fossil fuel hub when the Minister only recently asserted in public that data centres should have no place near sensitive residential areas.
Where should data centres be built?
The Planning Institute of Australia (PIA) has released a new report with recommendations to build a framework for how to find “well located” data centres and how the state and territory planning system can find suitable locations for growth.
The Institute is calling for the government to take on board its recommendations as it works through the proposed National Data Centre Land Use Standard, and to establish a national framework for what makes a large scale data centre well located.
It suggests the standard should: define what Australia is planning for, define what “well located” means, inform state and territory strategic planning, set consistent assessments and expectations and monitor land, infrastructure and community impact over time.
Deakin launches textile recycling
Deakin University is launching a textile recycling and processing facility that allows recyclers and manufacturers to recover reusable fibres from textile waste to turn into new products.
The university’s Institute for Frontier Materials’ Future Fibres Facility in Waurn Ponds in Melbourne’s southwest will manage the process of deconstructing discarded textiles into fibres, spinning fibres into yarn, and knitting or weaving the yarn into new products. The machine is one of the only three fibre recovery systems that support re-spinning in the country.
Recycling is up, but so is waste
According to the federal government’s National Waste and Resource Recovery Report 2026, the waste industry has recycled a record 50.6 million tonnes of waste in the 2024–25 period, and local plastics reprocessing has risen 34 per cent to 403,000 tonnes. This was funded by the federal, state and local governments through the Recycling Modernisation Fund.
However, Australia is now generating 4.1 per cent more waste compared to previous years and consuming 200,000 tonnes more plastic – despite a national target set in 2018 calling for a reduction of 10 per cent per capita.
Waste per person rose by 2.5 per cent. And while the resource recovery rate reached 67.5 per cent, it is still well short of the 80 per cent target for 2030.
According to the Plastics Flows and Fates Report 2024-25released at the same time, the industry recovered 512,000 tonnes of end of life plastic, which is a 15 per cent improvement – but still puts the plastic recovery rate at only 16 per cent.
ARENA backs Canberra electrification platform trial
The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) is investing $8.2 million in funding for clean energy service provider Electric Future to trial its end-to-end electrification platform, Go Electric, across 1000 households in Canberra’s southern suburbs. The platform aims to be a one stop shop, allowing customers to access customer advice, fixed price quoting, installer matching, scheduling, quality checks, rebate processing and ongoing support.
The platform will target a range of households, including owner occupiers, renters and low income households in different communities and housing types, and help them understand the benefits of electrification, particularly in cold climate conditions.
