Australia Battery Day 2023
The University of Queensland’s Centre for Policy Futures and the Advanced Materials and Battery Council once again hosted Australia Battery Day at The University of Queensland, on 26 September 2023. ABD23 provided an excellent opportunity for scientists and technologists working in industry to network with the relevant researchers in academia and CSIRO and with government representatives.
There is global agreement about the economic opportunities associated with the manufacture of advanced materials and batteries and Australia has significant deposits of the required metals and a fledgling but impressive, multi-chemistry battery industry value chain. Our metal processing and battery-tech start-ups could become the cornerstone of a manufacturing resurgence – batteries require a comprehensive supply chain of locally manufactured goods like metal foils, solvents, electrolytes, battery casing and battery management systems. But they need to be supported to remain in Australia.
Australia Battery Day is about forming networks between different groups of government and industry and research, but also about a discussion. The discussion at ABD23 was led by experts in investment, government policymaking, electrochemistry and nanotechnology, and battery-tech commercialisation. It advanced understanding about the challenges, the opportunities from very different perspectives and how to build an ecosystem for successful economic development in Australia.
For those who would like to delve into a few of the discussions, or simply recap on the day’s events, see the Australia Battery Day 2023 playlist on Youtube.
There is also an Australian Battery Day 2023 Presentations and Proceedings Report with transcriptions of presentations. If you would like to download this report, click the button below (registration required)
Download Presentation and Proceedings Report
(Registration Required)
Thanks to the Queensland Government and The University of Queensland for sponsorship.
Quotes from speakers:
Professor Deborah Terry AO, Vice-Chancellor of The University of Queensland
“Our mission as a university is to deliver for the public good through excellence in education, research and engagement with our communities and with our partners. There’s no better application of that mission than making sure that we support our industry and government partners in delivering clean, reliable and affordable energy as part of Queensland’s renewable energy future.”
The Honourable Glenn Butcher, Minister for Regional Development and Manufacturing, and Minister for Water
let’s make sure that we are the world leader in battery advancement here right in Queensland.
Jeff Phillips, Partner Jekara Group
Our view is, it’s the best time to invest. There’s lots of good start-ups. The R &D that comes out of Australia’s universities is world-class, it’s been proven many times. But what do we do? We then pack it up and send it overseas to commercialise it and that practice has to stop if we want to remain a wealthy nation.
Chris Le Serve, ex-Queensland Treasury
My view is there’s really substantial momentum behind this sector. The government’s very committed to seeing organisations emerge regardless of where you sit on that value chain. And my personal view is I would expect that momentum to continue to build as we move forward, noting that this is a very long term transition that we’re all embarking upon.
Professor Roy Green, CEO ARMHub
We have great talent, but the research translation process and the building of scale for global markets and value chains, still lies ahead of us. In manufacturing we’re starting from a very low base but the combination of good policy at the federal and state levels will be key to the future transformation that we’re all looking forward to.
Adam Best, CSIRO
We have a competitive advantage in critical minerals. They’re on our doorstep. We have them all in the ground. We have the know how, we have the skills. We have the world’s leading mining in order to actually recover those minerals….. But we have to build plants like what Stephen Grocott [Queensland Pacific Metals] is talking about such that we can actually take advantage of our competitive advantage. If we don’t, we miss the bus, we have to do it now.
Professor Jenny Pringle, Deakin University
So in terms of investment in future technologies, artificial intelligence has got to be another area that we’re really investing in and growing and it can really help our industry across the value chain.
Peter Woodall, Stanwell
Australia or Queensland has a highly skilled workforce from trade level through to our engineering level. So it’s not we don’t have the skills. I think we’re not going to have enough of them and we’re going to be competing for the same solution. So we’re going to get into schools earlier and introduce people to our industry so that the future workforce comes from there.