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Tech Zero

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Albanese’s domestic solar manufacturing hero strikes China pact

The face of the federal government’s plan to build a domestic solar panel manufacturing industry has partnered with a Chinese giant in pursuit of Australian subsidies.

  • Updated
  • Peter Ker

Sir Andrew Mackenzie: time to focus on the best few climate solutions

The Shell chairman says the world’s carbon challenge is harder than he realised while running BHP, and it’s time for a global focus on a few winning solutions

  • Peter Ker and Lap Phan

June

The clean energy renaissance that’s backed by big oil

The extraction of geothermal energy from the Earth’s core is enjoying a renaissance, and companies like BHP, Chevron and BP have put their money behind it.

  • Peter Ker and Lap Phan
Rio Tinto is putting its money where its mouth is on green iron.

Rio Tinto to invest $215m in giant iron ore microwave

Microwaves aren’t just for reheating food in the kitchen – they could help solve the carbon footprint problem of the iron ore industry.

  • Updated
  • Peter Ker

May

Why microwaves are the hottest new thing in industrial heat

Microwave ovens are great at heating up last night’s leftovers, but can the technology offer a low-carbon source of industrial heat for big industries such as steel?

  • Peter Ker and Lap Phan

Blue-sky thinkers block the sun to fight climate change

It might sound like science fiction, but a mix of scientists and venture capitalists are working on plans to block the sun to slow global warming.

  • Peter Ker and Lap Phan

April

Sequoia Lewien holds a mycorrhizal fungi extracted from soils in the east Otway region of Victoria.

Why Mike Cannon-Brookes invested in this mushroom

A tree-planting boom is required to get the world to net-zero, and the billionaire is betting mushrooms and fungi will be a crucial enabler

  • Peter Ker and Lap Phan
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Andrea Ceccolini.

The incredible plan to refreeze the arctic

A new start-up is fighting climate change by thickening ice in the Arctic.

  • Peter Ker and Lap Phan
Tony Dragicevich, CEO of Capral Aluminium on Sydney’s outskirts in Huntingwood

Green premiums are real, says aluminium boss

Electric vehicle makers are refusing to pay a green premium for low-carbon nickel but Capral says customers are paying an extra 5 per cent for clean aluminium.

  • Peter Ker and Lap Phan

Atlassian’s low-carbon skyscraper is ‘out of the ground’

The work-from-home revolution has failed to kill the $1.5b Atlassian Central project near Sydney Central Station, with a key construction milestone now passed.

  • Updated
  • Peter Ker and Lap Phan

March

Why Formula 1’s fuel is going green

Pat Symonds wrote the rules that will compel Formula 1 cars to run on carbon-neutral fuel from 2026. Big oil companies are now racing to find solutions.

  • Peter Ker

December 2023

Forrest family leads Rich List plunge on packaging disrupter

Andrew and Nicola Forrest have led a star-studded fundraising for the start-up that hopes to replace polystyrene with a more sustainable insulation material.

  • Peter Ker

November 2022

Greg Metha used to work the spotlight for a rockband. Now his hydrogen project has him centre stage.

This man is using ‘pixie dust’ to solve green hydrogen’s big problem

Professor Greg Metha and Fortescue might have a solution to Saul Griffith’s fear that Australia will waste time, money and renewable power making green hydrogen.

  • Updated
  • Peter Ker and Lap Phan

How we can keep burning (clean) coal for 100 years

The man behind a low carbon gas-fired power station says he is certain it can be adapted to run on Australian coal and will mean coal can be burned for “hundreds of years”.

  • Updated
  • Peter Ker

Why Queensland sugar cane can be the ‘Exxon of biofuels’

The way it is farmed and processed could make it a more viable source of low-carbon aviation power than other crops such as corn.

  • Peter Ker and Lap Phan

October 2022

The Aussie tech leading the world on electric planes

When the largest all-electric plane to fly took off in the US last month, an Australian-designed propulsion system was the wind beneath its wings.

  • Peter Ker and Lap Phan
Podcast episodes are out every Thursday. Listen for free wherever you get your podcasts.

Fixing craft beer’s dirty little secret

Is the explosion of small breweries in Australia making climate change worse? John Seltin is one artisan trying to ensure his only CO2 emissions are the bubble in his drinks.

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The plan to fix craft brewing’s dirty little secret

Jon Seltin reckons climate change is already changing the taste of beer, and amid a craft brewing boom he’s determined not to add to the problem.

  • Peter Ker and Lap Phan

BHP and the shipping industry rediscover the power of wind

Centuries after colonial powers sailed the seven seas on nothing but wind, big corporates like BHP are pushing a wind renaissance through the shipping industry.

  • Updated
  • Peter Ker and Lap Phan
SunDrive’s David Hu, left, and Vince Allen founded the start-up in a garage.

Malcolm Turnbull joins Cannon-Brookes with stake in solar disrupter

The former prime minister says SunDrive’s technological breakthrough in solar cell manufacturing could be a “game changer”.

  • Peter Ker
Professor Deanna D’Alessandro from the University of Sydney hopes new legislation in the United States will boost interest in direct air capture technology in Australia.

Americans bring direct air capture technology in from the ‘crazies’

Direct air capture start-ups are bracing for a wave of fresh investment after the United States Inflation Reduction Act included the emerging technology in its wide-ranging decarbonisation bill.

  • Jessica Sier and Colin Packham

Dropping out of uni was the best thing this solar pioneer ever did

Vince Allen’s disruptive solar cell has broken world records and won investment from billionaires including Mike Cannon-Brookes. Now he’s determined to mass produce in Australia.

  • Peter Ker and Lap Phan

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Original URL: https://www.afr.com/podcast/tech-zero