A Curtin University-operated hub, partly funded by the state government’s $40 million agreement with Chevron, is set to support major projects aimed to decarbonise the state.
A Curtin University-operated hub, partly funded by the state government’s $40 million agreement with Chevron, is set to support major projects aimed to decarbonise the state.
The GreenTech Hub was launched at Curtin 137 St Georges Terrace last night, at an event attended by Science and Innovation Minister Stephen Dawson.
Under the initiative, the hub will provide tools for start-ups to develop low-carbon projects by connecting entrepreneurs or groups with its partners.
Partners of the hub include Zenith Energy, Fortescue, AEMO, bp, Horizon Power, CSIRO, and other WA universities.
The state government has allocated $4 million funding to the hub for the next four years.
The hub is part of the four-year $40 million lower grants program and funding agreement between the state government and Chevron-operated Gorgon project.
GreenTech Hub director Jason McFarlane said the hub’s job was to mobilise and support tech innovation, commercialisation and adoption for a low impact Western Australia.
“We're going to do that across a number of different areas, including decarbonisation, biodiversity and circularity, thinking about a circular economy,” he said at the launch.
“The fundamentals of this is, how do we essentially embrace new opportunities and new ideas and really bring the energy and brings the state to wrap around opportunities and really start to accelerate the technologies we need… to deal with some of challenges they face.
“What are our specific needs, and what opportunities sit within the needs of our industry and our environment that are of relevance to markets, to countries and communities across the globe?”
Curtin University vice-chancellor Harlene Hayne said green technology projects, including large scale power arrays and electric vehicles, took considerable time to become a reality in Australia.
“Green technologies, or green tech, are technologies that conserve natural resources and minimise environmental impacts, and all of this requires research and the development and investment across the board,” she said.
“Our GreenTech Hub has 26 inaugural partners, including major energy and resource companies, emerging businesses and startups, venture capital providers, other research organisations and the state government.
“We are partnering with entities drawn from every stage of the energy value chain associated with the development, delivery and implementation.
“As a university within the GreenTech Hub, we focus not only on research and development of green technologies, but we move beyond development to also support entrepreneurship and tech commercialisation.
“Partners in the green tech hub will also be able to access Curtin Accelerate and Ignition programs and the expertise that has enabled more than 400 ideas to transition to start a company.”
Zenith Energy ESG and stakeholder engagement executive Dominic Da Cruz said there was a gap in the industry.
“The gap that without an ecosystem to bring all of those stakeholders together, is… why Zenith needs to be part of the GreenTech Hub to provide the credibility that we need,” he said.
“We may have the capability to assess for ourselves, and maybe we don't in a lot of cases, but we often don't have the capacity to take the time to assess that.
“I think that's the valuable role, providing the gap to match the funders, because we can't fund from the very start.
“We're not an investor in startups or in technology, but what we can do is provide the capability, particularly in our operations in which we have 20 different independent power systems.”
The hub’s first step will be to open up its innovation challenge, for the industry to submit commercially feasible long duration energy storage solutions of a minimum 10 hours.
“Our innovation challenges bring innovators, researchers and industry together to develop and test solutions in real world sustainability problems,” Mr McFarlane said.
“Seeing alongside those challenges is going to be a program in capacity building which invests in the skills, the knowledge, the connections that innovators and partners need to develop and scale their enterprises.”
At the launch, Mr Dawson said the hub was an opportunity to break down the silos that existed between industry, academia, startup and government.
“Our resources sector is one that has done us proud for a long, long time in this state, but we're often seen as a one trick pony that we've only got a resource sector,” he said.
“We continue to rely on it but we're very keen to diversify our economy and there's so much opportunity in that green tech space.”
