Australia has a wealth of opportunities available with the accelerating transition toward cleaner energy, according to a Federal Government report.

According to the Recycling and Clean Energy National Manufacturing Priority Road Map, an estimated $30 billion a year of new export revenue could be generated through investment in the manufacture of low emissions technology.

It said that although there was investor and market appetite for clean energy, Australia was yet to convert this into large-scale manufacturing opportunities.

“Most of the manufactured inputs required by large projects – mostly solar PV and wind – are currently made offshore,” the report said.

“Australia’s domestic supply chain for clean energy components is undeveloped.”

However, the opportunity to take advantage of the market gap stemmed from Australia’s science, research and innovation capabilities which were listed as critical enablers of transformation in manufacturing.

“We have outstanding research capabilities and innovative people, and a track record for contributing globally significant technologies,” the report said. “For example, technology developed by UNSW is now used in almost 80 per cent of today’s global solar PV manufacturing.”

It said that success would be underpinned by innovation and novel products. 

The International Energy Agency (IEA) said that the clean energy technologies needed tomorrow would hinge on innovation today.

According to its Energy Technology Perspectives report, just over one-third of the cumulative emissions reductions in the Sustainable Development Scenario stemmed from technologies that were not yet commercially available. 

“Energy efficiency, material efficiency, and avoided transportation demand all play an important role in reducing emissions in long-distance transport and heavy industries,”
the IEA said. “Fortunately, the engineering skills and knowledge these sectors possess today are an excellent starting point for commercialising the technologies required for tackling these challenges.”

The IEA said that quicker progress toward net-zero emissions depended on faster innovation in electrification, hydrogen, bioenergy, and carbon capture, utilisation
and storage (CCUS). 

The Government’s road map said falling costs in renewable technology and CCUS gave an opportunity for Australia to achieve an industrial advantage in
energy-intensive manufacturing. Part of this opportunity included recycling.

The road map said there was an expected 1500 kilotonnes of waste from retired solar panels by 2050, mainly due to difficulties in dissolving the glue that bound together a module’s components.

It also said wind turbines were complicated and costly to disassemble, with blades primarily made from composite materials which were not commonly recyclable. “The standard lifetime of a wind turbine is 20-25 years, an age approached by only two of the 101 wind farms in Australia,” it said. “Nonetheless, the capacity to recycle and remanufacture them will need to be developed soon.”

Battery recycling also gave opportunities through ‘second life’ applications and deconstruction of batteries into basic materials.

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