The Western Australian GreenTech Hub, operated by Curtin University, has formally launched with the mission to strengthen local capability and capacity in green technologies and services.
The Hub provides tools for start-ups to create and grow the solutions needed for a low-carbon future. It collaborates with industry leaders to infuse real-world industry insights, expertise, and opportunities into its work towards achieving key objectives.
The facility forms part of a four-year $40 million Lower Carbon Grants Program and a funding agreement between the state government and the Chevron-operated Gorgon Project.
About $4 million in funding has been allocated for The Hub to operate over the next four years.
As a stand-alone facility, GreenTech Hub is set to leverage expertise and oversee collaborations between the government, industry, academia, and community stakeholders by hosting innovation challenges and Curtin’s Accelerate Program.
Its innovation challenge is focused on advanced energy storage systems with the aim of reducing reliance on fossil fuels along with decreasing greenhouse gas emissions.
GreenTech Hub believes Western Australia is uniquely positioned to become a world leader in the development and deployment of energy storage technologies.
“Our resource sector operates some of the largest and most remote sites globally. These operations require reliable and efficient energy solutions to power their activities,” The Hub says.
“By integrating advanced energy storage systems, we can reduce reliance on fossil fuels, lower operational costs, and decrease greenhouse gas emissions. Similarly, many of our remote and First Nations communities face challenges with access to consistent and affordable energy.
“Energy storage technologies can provide these communities with stable, clean energy solutions, improving living standards and fostering economic development.”
Cleaner, greener future
Energy storage is a critical component in the transition to a sustainable energy future, enabling The Hub to maximise the use of renewable resources. This challenge is the GreenTech Hub’s first step towards a cleaner, greener future for Western Australia, and the first opportunity for WA GreenTech developers and other end users to get involved.
Western Australian Science and Innovation Minister Stephen Dawson says the launch of the facility is another step in the state’s transition to a low-carbon, sustainable and resilient economy.
“Our state has extraordinary natural advantages from solar and wind to critical minerals and advanced logistics,” Dawson says.
“The GreenTech Hub is set to connect innovative solutions to challenges, linking unique WA contexts with global markets and innovation pathways.”
“The GreenTech Hub is set to connect innovative solutions to challenges, linking unique WA contexts with global markets and innovation pathways”
Western Australia’s clean energy transition is also an economic transition, delivering opportunities through economic growth and diversification, says Energy and Decarbonisation Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson.
She says successfully developing advanced energy storage systems could reduce the state’s reliance on fossil fuels and provide alternative power solutions, particularly in remote areas, while also creating a new energy industry.
“With Western Australia committed to getting out of coal faster than any other state, it is fitting that the GreenTech Hub’s first challenge is working to find the energy answers of the future,” Sanderson says.
Australia and Amazon
The opening of GreenTech Hub follows news that Amazon Web Services (AWS) is expanding its digital infrastructure footprint in Australia, with plans to invest $20 billion from 2025 to 2029. This is in addition to a $9 billion investment in data centres from 2012 to 2023, as reported by Mining.com.au.
The Australian Trade and Investment Commission (Austrade) facilitated the connections between Amazon Web Services and Australian Government representatives for discussions on AI opportunities and safety, as well as cyber security policy.
Austrade says the new $20 billion investment ensures Australia will maintain one of the world’s most advanced digital infrastructure models.
The rapid uptake of AI is changing the data centre landscape. Generative AI such as ChatGPT requires five times the processing power and storage of traditional data centres.
General-purpose data centres are unable to accommodate new AI-based GPU servers, which use far more power and create much more heat. Conventional air-cooling systems are also unable to dissipate the heat generated by these powerful processors.
Western Australia is touted by Austrade as being the green data centre hub of the future. Pioneered by Australian company GreenSquareDC, a flagship $1 billion data centre WAi1 is being built in the city. It is a 96 MW hyperscale facility purpose-built for resource-intensive AI computing.
It will be powered by clean energy, use considerably less water, and built using sustainable materials with far less embodied carbon.
According to Austrade, green data centres like GreenSquareDC’s WAi1 could hold the answer to a greener future. By using renewable energy, biofuels, liquid cooling systems, and groundwater cooling, green data centres can minimise the environmental impact of resource-intensive processing and storage.
They also meet a rising demand from organisations that want to store their data in energy-efficient facilities, so they can meet their net zero commitments.
GreenTech Hub partners with companies such as BP (BPT:ASX) Fortescue (ASX:FMG), and Worley (ASX:WOR), among plenty of others.
Write to Adam Orlando at Mining.com.au
Images: Amazon & GreenTech
