BUSINESS NEWS: As far as world firsts go, this week’s news has some interesting robotics companies hoping to change something of the world. Two energy industry superfunds have merged, banks and super funds are gearing up to boost affordable housing, new batteries are charging up and start-up funding is available to help boost the entrepreneurial space.
Planet of the plants
Continuing in our robotics series a bright spark called David Bowen has created the world’s first machete-wielding plant. For what reason? We’re not sure exactly, but this is what Mr Bowen has to say.
“This installation enables a live plant to control a machete. The Plant Machete has a control system that reads and utilises the electrical noises found in a live philodendron. The system uses an open-source microcontroller connected to the plant to read varying resistance signals across the plant’s leaves.
“Using custom software, these signals are mapped in real-time to the movements of the joints of the industrial robot holding a machete. In this way, the movements of the machete are determined based on input from the plant. Essentially the plant is the brain of the robot controlling the machete determining how it swings, jabs, slices, and interacts in space.”
Hopefully the plants won’t all rise up and overthrow humankind and take back the planet.
Surprisingly, it’s not the first time scientists have developed robots that sense electrical impulses for movement.
In 2018, Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers developed a way for humans to remotely control robots using brain signals, and in 2020 Japanese researchers created a device that allows anyone to control a toy robot with their mind.
If you’re interested in robotics, check out this week’s article on the brick-laying robot Hadrian X from FBR:
- Read: “Safer, faster, more accurate, and less wasteful”: Perth cousins create world’s first mobile robotic bricklayer
Banks and superfunds to boost affordable housing
At last we may be getting some serious movement on affordable housing. The nation’s big four banks, superannuation funds and other institutional investors will collaborate on social and affordable housing under a federal plan revealed by Treasurer Jim Chalmers in Brisbane onlast Friday.
Mr Chalmers said the finance sector is are key to a series of roundtable discussions aimed at increasing investment in areas of national importance.
Chalmers said that the federal budget was under stress, and there was scope for collaboration with private investors and institutions for key areas of need such as affordable housing.
“Opportunities for profitable investment in national priorities exist. We just need to work together to make them happen,” Chalmers said.
“In the world we’re in, with growing social need and tightening fiscal constraints, there’s a call for all of us to develop more creative solutions.”
He said Australian business investment was at its lowest levels since the 1990s.
“Investors are a big part of the solution here, and we need your help to turn this around. If we start to reverse this trend, and I’m confident we can, there is cause for optimism,” he said.
New fed energy strategy
Meanwhile, the Ffeds have made an important first step towards a National Energy Performance Strategy, with a discussion paper to be released in the coming weeks on how to deliver energy efficiency improvements across the economy.
According to the Climate Change Performance Index, Australia ranks 54 out of 64 countries for energy performance per capita.
This is particularly relevant for the country’s housing stock, which some people have disparigningly (not necessrily inacurately) haves been compared to “glorified tents”.
Speaking at the Energy Efficiency Summit last Thursday, federal assistant minister for energy Jenny McAllister cited a Victorian study that found a relatively minor home energy efficiency upgrade could save $887 per person in the healthcare system over the winter period.
Federal energy minister Chris Bowen says setting federal energy efficiency policies promises to cut energy costs for households and businesses – some have suggested by up to $600 a year – reduce pressure on the grid and help Australia meet its newly boosted emissions target.
“We’re acting to put in place a strategy that will help us create a high energy performance economy, meet our emissions reduction targets, and enable us to put downward pressure on energy prices,” McAllister said.
“And we’re doing this important work in consultation with state and territory governments, businesses, households and community groups across the nation.”
Attending chief executive Edwina MacDonald of the Australian Council of Social Services said the strategy should prioritise energy efficiency upgrades in low-income housing, “including dwellings in the social and private rental sectors and those owned by low-income homeowners.
Support cannot come soon enough for the millions of people on low-incomes who are living in dangerously hot or cold homes, already depriving themselves of energy and going without food or medicines to afford their energy bills”.
Superfund merger for energy workers
In more down to earth news Energy Super, Queensland’s industry super fund for energy and electricity workers, has merged with LGIAsuper and rebranded as Brighter Super. The decision was to allow the fund to compete with larger superfunds, a spokesperson said.
The merged fund will look after about y $30 billion in savings for more than250,000 members.
Kate Farrar has been made the chief executive of the new entity, as she has been chief executive of LGIAsuper since 2018.
She said the company has been working hard to try and speak with all its members.
“Since the merger, the fund has met and spoken with nearly 14,000 members, with more than 3800 members attending in-person meetings, seminars and appointments, mostly in the workplace.”
CEFC finances ACT Capital Battery
The Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) has committed $35.5 million towards a 100 megawatt Capital Battery to provide critical network support towards clean energy. The project will support the ACT’s net zero by 2045 goal.
CEFC chief executive Ian Learmonth said: “As Australia raises its ambitions to reach net zero emissions with new targets, we must heighten our focus on developing the enabling technologies that will be critical to our success. Battery storage is key to our ability to decarbonise the energy sector.
It’s the third time the company has committed funding towards batteries, after its work with renewable energy company Neoen on the Victorian Big Battery and Hornsdale Power Reserve in helping demonstrate the economic and grid stability case for large-scale batteries.
ABCB going out to tender for energy efficiency consultancy/advisory services for commercial buildings
The Australian Building Codes Board (ABCB) is seeking a supplier or consortium of suppliers to provide technical analysis for an update to energy efficiency provisions for buildings.
Class 3 to 9 buildings and the common areas of Class 2 buildings will be updated in the 2025 edition of the National Construction Code (NCC 2025). The supplier will provide building level analysis at three stringency levels, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, mitigate peak electricity load and increase the uptake of distributed energy resource equipment (solar PV, battery storage and electric vehicle charging equipment) in new commercial buildings.
Sydney Water reaches milestone with Western Sydney
Sydney Water recently reached a milestone following the installation of one of the biggest water main pipes to the Western Sydney Aerotropolis, in partnership with Transport for NSW. The 1.6 kilometre long water main will provide critical water infrastructure to the Aerotropolis, including the new Western Sydney International Airport and Western Parkland City.
Once completed, the pipes will have the capacity to deliver 35 Olympic sized swimming pools a day to the precinct.
Start-up funding available
UNIVERSITIES: In a bid to attract new ideas and innovation and encourage an increasingly entrepreneurial younger generation, the federal government has announced it will offer loans to tertiary students through the HECS help system, and the opportunity to work with accelerators and incubators to kick-start their start-up.
There will be ??2000 interest-free loans worth approximately $11,000 available as part of a proposed Startup Year initiative.
“We want to send a signal that entrepreneurship for the country is really important,” Minister for Industry and Science Ed Husic told an audience at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) at the launch last week of a consultation paper for the proposed program.
“We’ve had Treasury at a federal level already say that the amount of business dynamism that exists in the economy is not strong enough — we need to do more to rev that up. And this is part of what we’re trying to do,” he said.
UTS, where The Fifth Estate is currently being hosted for six months, has about 500 active student startups, with 60 per cent of all students reporting they want to engage in entrepreneurship and startups.
The minister also acknowledged the work of UTS director of entrepreneurship Murray Hurps at the event as a “pillar for Australia’s startup community”.
RAA launches SA transport app
The Royal Automobile Association (RAA) has created a free app to help South Australians find the most environmentally friendly, fastest, and cheapest route to their destination.
Alongside navigation, the free app also provides real-time traffic congestion and incidents updates, fuel prices, and parking options.
RAA Go spokesperson Tom Graue said that young people were the cohort most likely to modify their trip to reduce emissions, with 83 per cent of under 30s likely to use the app, according to a survey.
“We’re seeing a growing appetite towards shared, on demand and zero emissions transport options, particularly with younger South Australians,” he said.