SHARON CLAYDON, MEMBER FOR NEWCASTLE: Good morning. My name is Sharon Claydon. I’m the very proud Federal Member of Newcastle. I’ll let the minister share the joyous news, but I do want to make just a few introductory comments. It’s terrific to be joined by all the amazing team of Kardinia Energy and Newcastle Institute of Energy and Resources, and, of course, my local government colleague, Deputy Mayor Declan Clausen, because we all know that this is an all-community kind of effort when it comes to solving some of the great challenges that are in front of us. 

But this is an amazing story for Newcastle, one of many good news stories. But Kardinia Energy we have watched emerge over more than a decade now and really getting to the point where it is ready to absolutely fly. And that requires thoughtful support and investment from all of us here, really. As I said, Minister Ayres will go into that detail, but it’s a story of terrific innovation, the power of bringing those great minds, industry partners, communities together. That’s the work of the Newcastle Institute of Energy and Resources and having companies like Kardinia kind of spin off out of all of that terrific work and be hopeful of a full-scale commercial operation. That’s our ambition as an Australian Government. We want to see these kinds of innovations in new forms of energy and new ways of applying, storing and generating to really flourish. 

It's Newcastle – I say it again and again at these press conferences – it’s Newcastle that leads the way in the energy transition. We’ve done energy for more than a century, and we will excel at all the work that needs to be done in terms of generating, storing and distributing new forms of energy going forward. 

On that note, on that very optimistic note and great love of Newcastle, I’m going to hand to an almost honorary Novocastrian, Minister Tim Ayres. 

SENATOR TIM AYRES, MINISTER FOR INDUSTRY AND INNOVATION AND MINISTER FOR SCIENCE: Thanks very much, Sharon. It’s really good to be here with the team from Kardinia Energy, with the Newcastle Institute of Energy and Resources, with Sharon Claydon, the local MP for Newcastle, Declan Clausen, our very able Newcastle Deputy Mayor, and advocate for these kinds of projects. 

Very pleased to announce $2.15 million from the Industry Growth Program that will go to support Kardinia Energy’s next phase of development; a commercial pilot taking this extraordinary technology and making sure that this flexible solar product – only one in the world – made here in Newcastle can be delivered at scale. 

It’s extraordinary technology with applications in all parts of the energy system. The team behind me have been, as I understand it, supporting Coldplay’s recent tour, 50 destinations, electricity supplied from products made here in Newcastle to support the extraordinary energy needs of stadium rock, for example. 

I’m looking forward to seeing the next stage of this development moving towards commercial production, printed technology made here in Newcastle, to move towards commercial production and manufacturing here in Australia. 

I’ve been struck this morning, really, I’ve been engaged in these questions in the Hunter Valley for many decades. For such a young man, Matt, I’ve many decades worth of work in manufacturing in science and engineering here in the Hunter. I was at Steel River this morning. Dozens and dozens of the world’s best researchers, locally grown and attracted from around the world to the CSIRO’s facility there. Here at the University of Newcastle, dozens and dozens of researchers, engineers, technicians and scientists, engaged at the Newcastle Institute for Energy and Resources in this vital work of modernising the electricity grid, delivering low-cost solutions to households and business. 

Newcastle and the Hunter Valley really is at the centre not just of research but deployment and commercialisation. And that means for businesses like Tomago Aluminium up the road – energy-hungry businesses that require large volumes of low-cost electricity from renewables and storage and gas – what’s happening behind here matters for blue-collar jobs now and the blue-collar jobs of the future. 

I might hand it over to the team who are right behind me to approach some of the technical issues. That is beyond my capacity to explain to you. And then we’ll take questions. Thanks.

PROFESSOR PAUL DASTOOR: Thank you, Minister. Good morning, everyone. My name Professor Paul Dastoor. I head up the research here at the NIER. We’ve been working on printed solar now for around 30 years, a unique technology based on printing energy. We create electronic inks that we can run through a printer – a printer that would normally make wine labels. Remarkable. And we can manufacture product at extremely low cost at extremely large scale. And finally, when that product is finished, it’s 100 per cent recyclable. So, for first time – I think for the first time ever – we actually have a truly sustainable renewable energy technology. 

We print, as I said, using roll-to-roll printers. The new investment, we’re extraordinarily excited about because that will allow us now to transition the technology to real commercial-scale manufacturing to create devices that are performing even higher than they are at the moment. I think with that I will stop, or you’ll all get a physics lecture, and we’ll go with questions, I guess. 

AYRES: Okay, any questions? 

JOURNALIST: Why hasn’t an invention as extraordinary as this been commercialised earlier? 

DASTOOR: That’s a great question. Why has it taken us 30 years? Have we just been drinking tea? It turns out that actually, to take a technology from where we started at really small scales – I remember when Sharon was first here looking at tiny devices – up to large-scale manufacturing takes a long time. It takes 20, 30 years to take the technology from that small scale. And it takes a team of people that you see around you, a skill based that has to be grown in order to transition that technology from a research idea, a concept in a proposal, through to rolling it out across tens of concerts around the world. 

JOURNALIST: How will his rollout process take place, and what does the cost look like? 

DASTOOR: The rollout from here, we now start with developing and building new printer machines, so the technology is really quite straightforward. We want to make more stuff. We make more printers. The new printers will give us – we’re designing them together with colleagues around the world – will give us the ability to make much higher density devices, get more power, if you like, out of the performance, out of the material. And then from here, what we see is this now opens the door to further large-scale investment and the sort of megawatts production capability that we see in the future for this technology. 

JOURNALIST: Would you invest in a business that, in maybe five, six years’ time, you will have a commercial operation? 

DASTOOR: No, I think from here all of the work that we’ve done up to here has been the important work that’s brought us to this point. We actually anticipate having commercial product within about two years’ time, so it will be faster again. 

JOURNALIST: So obviously you’ve got some really significant potential investors watching carefully, and it’s just a matter of time before they get on board, right? 

DASTOOR: That’s exactly right. So, we have extraordinary interest from around the world in the technology for reasons that are probably obvious. You can see that it’s a unique way of generating energy. You can actually print energy and make it anywhere in the world. If you want to make it in New South Wales, make it in New South Wales. If you want to make it in Western Australia, make it Western Australia. You can manufacture energy with this technology. Amazing. 

JOURNALIST: So, the $2.1 million is going to allow you to continue the work that you’re doing? It’s not going to create a separate project? 

DASTOOR: It will create now – it allows us to create that first large-scale manufacturing facility. So, we will see now a different facility with new equipment based on the developments that we’ve – 

JOURNALIST: Where’s that going to be built at? 

DASTOOR: Sorry? 

JOURNALIST: Where is that going to be located? 

DASTOOR: That will probably be located here or very close by. 

JOURNALIST: And is that meant, like, hoping to go out in the Hunter? What are you hoping to do with that? 

DASTOOR: Yeah, my, if you want my dream scenario, my dream scenario is that we actually now create a brand-new manufacturing industry here in the Hunter. Newcastle energy solutions delivering product to the region, to the country, to the world. 

JOURNALIST: And you speak about a commercial product. Is it going to be exclusively only for, like, businesses, like corporate, or households as well? 

DASTOOR: The technology is agnostic. It doesn’t care where it goes. It can certainly be used in all those applications. I suspect that some of the lowest-hanging fruit are, for example, covering large areas. So, things like when you go out to our big industrial areas of Western Sydney for example, you see the vast acres of roofs not having solar panels on them. That’s an enormous resource waiting to be tapped. 

JOURNALIST: I heard earlier that you were working closely with CSIRO. Is it true that they’ve got a similar project to yours, a product to yours? If so, how are they differing? 

DASTOOR: So, CSIRO is working at a much earlier stage on different materials. So, they are working with a set of materials that potentially can be commercialised. And we’ve worked closely with CSIRO. I’ve been doing this so long I’ve worked with all the people in the country. So complementary. Where we are is we’re much further down that technology readiness level, and with this announcement, it takes us even closer. 

JOURNALIST: So, they’re complementary, not – 

DASTOOR: Absolutely. The world needs energy. We only have to look at all the developments that are going on, for example, the increasing rapacious capacity of AI to want to have electricity. We need everything. 

JOURNALIST: And so, with the money, the $2 million, you’re saying you’re getting a larger space for manufacturing. When do you expect that to be sort of up and running? 

DASTOOR: Like I said, we are now, to be honest, purchase orders are being prepared. We anticipate equipment being delivered within about nine months, the facility running in 18. 

JOURNALIST: Can we talk about other stuff? 

AYRES: Sure. I mean, I just may make the point, I think you’ll have heard through Paul’s account of this, it really matters having that complementary capacity – CSIRO, the university, Newcastle Institute of Energy and Resources, the business community here, the Albanese Government’s special investment vehicles like the National Reconstruction Fund engaged here in this place together. Because that research work supports – you know, each program supports each other, and that’s how we get to answers faster, and it puts Newcastle really at the centre of Australia and the world’s technological development in this area. 

But if we’re going to go for a change of pace, if there’s any non-Newcastle NIER questions, I’m very happy to take them now. 

JOURNALIST: Your colleague Catherine King was in Newcastle yesterday to announce the next phase of the high-speed rail project. That is going – one of the aspects that the next phase is going to look at is the supply of high-speed rail vehicles. I’d imagine with your background, you’d be keen to see as much of that manufacturing happening locally. However, I have been told that Australia now doesn’t have the expertise that we need to manufacture those vehicles from the get-go, that we may have to build up capacity over time. So, what’s your thoughts on that? 

AYRES: Can I make a couple of points about this: firstly, we’re all on board with this extraordinary project, if you’ll forgive the very weak pun. This is a transformational national project, and the funding that Catherine King announced yesterday supports the next stage of design of high-speed rail. It’s not just a rail project, Matt, as you pointed to – 160,000 homes are likely to be the consequence of these extraordinary changes in economic opportunity for the Hunter Valley. 

In terms of rail manufacturing and rolling stock manufacturing, of course, that will be a key focus of investment and activity here. I am still – and there are many thousands of Australians who live in the Hunter Valley – still scarred by the decision of the previous Liberal Government to offshore rail manufacturing from the Hunter Valley to Korea, China and India. It cost thousands of jobs, hundreds of apprenticeships, and we are rebuilding rail rolling stock capability. And the lead time with this project – I wish it could be delivered tomorrow – the lead time with this project means that we have time. Working with the New South Wales Government, working with the project proponents and the world’s best rolling stock manufacturers to make sure that it’s high-speed rail for Australia made in Australia. That’s our objective. 

We’re working, of course, with the NSW Government as they develop their plans for the next phase of rolling stock manufacturing. I want to see that here in the Hunter. That work is continuing. At the national level, one of the election commitments that I was part of developing in the lead-up to 2022 that we’ve delivered on over the course of the last term of government is more coordination of rail rolling stock procurement across the Commonwealth, which means lower costs and more local manufacturing. So, we’re very committed to delivering a local build of high-speed rail, but there’s so much work in front of us, and this feasibility project over the course of the next two years will deliver on that kilometre by kilometre of design. It's hard work. I want to see as much private sector engagement and as much Australian research and development engagement that is possible as well. 

JOURNALIST: Are you satisfied with the steps that have been taken to prevent Chinese steel dumping at Molycop? 

AYRES: Well, what you’ll see, or what Australians have seen and will see over coming weeks and months, is an Anti-Dumping Commission that is being developed to be fit for purpose for the modern era. Of course, there are overcapacity issues, in particular, in China in steel, which are well documented and the subject of discussions between Australia and our partners in Europe, Japan, the United States and Korea. There’s also an extremely volatile international trading environment, and that’s why we’ve provided additional support for the Anti-Dumping Commission, issued them with a new Statement of Expectations and working very closely with them as they go through their evidence-based work to make assessments of claims that are made by industry. And you will have seen that they are delivering evidence-based, carefully weighted anti-dumping orders that protect Australian industry from unfair competition overseas. 

JOURNALIST: That 30 per cent levy that was introduced last month, do you think that’s adequate? 

AYRES: Well, we’ll watch it carefully, and the Anti-Dumping Commission will continue to do its work. 

Any other questions for me? Got off lightly. 

Thanks, team. See you later.