Cleantech challenge displays strong Australian innovation

GE Australia has highlighted innovative local entries to its ecomagination challenge, with the winner to be announced by the end of November. The challenge attracted more than 40 entries from Australia highlighting a strong level of local innovation and progressive thinking about carbon reduction technologies.

The ideas have been diverse - from tilling sewer waste into the desert to fertilise the area for the production of biofuels, to tools that help identify where investment is needed in the power grid to keep electricity prices under control and reduce energy consumption.

Ben Waters, Commercial Director, GE Australia and New Zealand, said: “Australia has been strong in clean tech innovation for many years, but has often struggled to commercialise, and that’s been the aim of this initiative.

“The challenge has shown that there are ideas at all levels of Australian society from organisations like CSIRO, the universities and the shed-based inventor. We need to build on these pockets of innovation and encourage more ideas, more research and more investment to ensure that Australia isn’t left behind by the rest of the world when it comes to building a low-carbon economy.”

Some of the Australian highlights from the ecomagination challenge include:

• Sub-surface stirring boosts geothermal energy. An entry by CSIRO advocates the storage of waste heat underground and producing power in the process of transferring the heat under ground during the day and releasing the heat during the night.
• Predictive energy optimisation to build intelligence into the control systems of commercial property. BuildingIQ has created a new class of energy management software which has been proven to deliver continuous savings of 10-20% in energy usage by predicting demand and managing energy usage accordingly.
• Converting heat to electricity. A GeoSolar Dynamo uses a nanofluidic effect to convert heat to electricity. The heat source can be delivered direct as solar or waste heat with the prospect of generating electricity both night and day.
• Sensor-driven street lighting. Street lighting powered by sensors that switch on lighting only when movement is detected.
• Remote control power outlets. Power outlets with a built-in stand-by function powered by a universal remote control to reduce the amount of power consumed by electrical goods such as TVs and DVD players left on stand-by.

For further information about the GE ecomagination challenge, visit the website.