$7.5 Million For Australian Energy Storage Training And Research Hubs

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The Australian Federal Government has announced $7.5 million in funding for two new Research Hubs that will focus on different aspects of advancing Australia’s energy storage sector.

$4.4 million will support the development of a specialist Training Centre at Deakin University. The Australian Research Council (ARC) Training Centre for Future Energy Storage Technologies will ensure the next generation of energy-storage researchers and workers have the required skills and aims to create new knowledge and intellectual property in advanced energy materials, batteries and related control systems.

“The energy sector is going through rapid transformational change, and we need the best and brightest researchers at the forefront of this change developing new ideas and new technologies,” said Minister for Education and Training Simon Birmingham. “We need researchers who will expand Australia’s capability in energy production and in the critical area of energy storage.”

The ARC Training Centre for Future Energy Storage Technologies will be led by Deakin University’s Professor Maria Forsyth.

$3.1 million in funding is also being provided for a new Research Hub at the University of New South Wales. The ARC Research Hub for Integrated Energy Storage Solutions will be developing new technologies including printed batteries, structural supercapacitors, novel fuel cells and power-to-gas systems, with view to integration of these technologies within existing energy networks.

The University of New South Wales has some previous form on these technologies, including printed batteries; which it has been collaborating on with Printed Energy. We haven’t heard anything further on that project since soon after it was announced last year and Printed Energy hasn’t added any news to its site since July 2017.

The ARC Research Hub for Integrated Energy Storage Solutions will be led by UNSW Professor Zhao Yang (Joe) Dong.

The Research Hub funding was announced by Minister for the Environment and Energy Josh Frydenberg.

“With the change in electricity generation, there is also the need for advancements in energy storage and its continued integration, and this Hub will at the heart of this,” said Minister Frydenberg.

Mr. Frydenberg also managed to squeeze in a plug for the National Energy Guarantee (NEG) in the announcement, which may not have been such a great idea given recent NEG revelations. It harshed the battery buzz a little.

The support for energy storage is being delivered under the ARC’s Industrial Transformation Research Program, and is part of $180 million in new ARC funding announced yesterday for 132 new research projects across various sectors.