China is emerging as Newcastle’s major research partner in the $100 million dollar “Smart Grid, Smart City” project.
In the latest phase of the project, Energy Australia is inviting Hunter households to join a trial of energy saving products, with the promise of rebates on their power bills.
Smart Grid research through Newcastle University and the Newcastle Institute for Energy and Resources is also gathering pace.
Institute Director Dr Allan Broadfoot says since the start of the month two new agreements have been signed with China.
“We’ve signed an agreement with the Taiwan’s Industrial Technology Research Institute and with the State Grid Electrical Power Research Institute of China,” he said.
“There’s enormous research capabilities within those countries that we wish to tap into.
“Not only baseline research but also the education, the sharing of knowledge in smart grid technologies.”
Meanwhile, work has commenced on the construction of new laboratories at Shortland as part of a $30 million project that aims to put Newcastle at the forefront of clean energy research.
Four new laboratories are being built alongside 14 former BHP research labs that have been refurbished to house the Newcastle Institute for Energy and Resources.
Dr Broadfoot says when the work is complete up to 300 researchers will be employed on the site.
“We’ve got the machinery in now putting in the bulldozers for our new research labs which will be four new state of the art facilities for low emission coal research and for organic electronics,” he said.
“At the moment we’ve got 104 research staff on site, and by Christmas we plan to increase that to 200, and by this time next year we expect to have about 300.”
