Technology

August 14, 2014

Solar Thermal, Desalination, Veggies & Jobs At Port Augusta

RenewEconomy reports on Australia’s largest solar power tower plus a desalination plant at Port Augusta, approved recently for Sundrop Farms, a commercial greenhouse business which already uses solar power and seawater to grow vegetables. The project will total 20 hectares […]
July 17, 2014

City Strategies National Issues – Why Government Inertia?

“State and federal governments have their heads in the sand around the evolution and growth of cities,” says Sydney Lord Mayor, Clover Moore, slamming lack of policy. Should Cities Rule The World? This is the question Clover Moore presented when […]
July 17, 2014

Natural Disaster Mitigation – To Save Taxpayers Billions?

“An open-source platform that provides access to information about disasters such as floods and bushfires could help yield savings of $500 million to $2.4 billion alone.” The Australian Business Roundtable for Disaster Resilience & Safer Communities. About The Roundtable’s Report […]
July 16, 2014

Smart ‘Everything’. Utilities Connecting, Saving $s, Emissions

Dr. Thomas Kiessling is Chief Product and Innovation Officer (CPIO) at Deutsche Telekom. He makes the following insightful observations about life in inner cities now and into the future: Technolgical Innovation Not Just Austerity Measures Imperative As the 3.5 billion+ […]
July 9, 2014

Feral Camels…Camel Milk…A $10 Billion Industry?

In 2006 PWF asked if there were any entrepreneurs interested in milking camels? Four years later an Israeli, Gilad Berman, expressed interest in milking Australia’s feral camels milk. Today Gilad is milking camels in Perth’s hills and selling milk at […]
July 2, 2014

Public Service Mutuals Green Paper Webinar 4 July

A Public Service Green Paper looking for social innovation leading to new policy formulation has been released for public consultation to stimulate discussion as to the role of Co-operatives and Mutuals in delivering public services for Australians. About The Paper […]
May 29, 2014

Farm Technology Opportunity: Some Innovating, Some ‘Need Vision’

New predictive GIS (Geographic Information System) technology is being hailed with “Farmers in Queensland’s peanut capital of Kingaroy.. at the front line of a precision agriculture program which could revolutionise the Australian farming industry”… BUT multinational Israeli fertilizer company Haifa […]
May 25, 2014

Smart Phone Taxi Booking App – Disruptive, But Better?

Cabcharge – Australia’s virtual taxi monopoly – faces reduced fares during off-peak hours from competitors such as gocatch, Ingogo and Uber, as smart phone algorithms supporting alternative taxi booking services continue to improve. Uber fare reductions up to 40% in […]
May 23, 2014

Participatory Democracy – Learn How Indi Did It…Is Doing It

Remember how Independent candidate, Cathy McGowan and her team in Indi, NE Victoria, won a safe federal Liberal seat on the basis of participatory democracy in 2013? Voice for Indi (V4I) will run a ‘How we did it forum,’ Indi […]
May 16, 2014

Interested In Participating In Sydney’s EcoXpo 2014?

Last year Dr. David Suzuki helped the EcoXpo celebrate its 5th anniversary – a great success, by all accounts – and this year the City of Sydney will be a partner, recognising the EcoXpo as the major sustainable event in […]
April 30, 2014

Energy Storage: New York MTA, Towoomba Airport…

RenewEconomy has a special edition on Energy Storage and tells us that NYC transit authority has installed a huge on-site energy storage system as part of an effort to cut its energy consumption by ‘increasing its smarts and shaving peak […]
April 17, 2014

Electricity: Utilities, Peak Demand And ‘Pro-Sumers’

During this summer’s southern heatwaves rooftop solar produced by consumers reduced overall demand by nearly 5 per cent. In the future with rooftop solar doubling/trebling (?) plus battery storage added into the mix, what would happen? Do We Need A […]