Solar, efficiency dominate cleantech competition finalists

The eight finalists have been announced for Australia’s 2013 Cleantech Competition, after being narrowed down from a short-list of 30 entries in June.

Australian Cleantech managing director John O’Brien says the eight companies have been chosen on their ability to demonstrate global leadership, commercial appeal, and for their smart and sustainable technologies.

The Judging panel consists of representatives from organisations such as CSIRO, KPMG, Clayton Utz and Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) with the aim of mixing innovation, technology and business skills.

The winners will compete to win Australia’s best clean technology at the live final in Sydney on October 2^nd.  The competition is largely funded by the Department of Innovation and Autodesk with individual awards sponsored by Dairy Australia and ARENA.

The clean technology sector currently provides jobs for around 53,000 people, more than the direct employment of the automotive manufacturing industry in Australia, a recent report has found. The sector currently makes around $29 billion in revenue – around a quarter of the entire manufacturing sector for Australia.

Due to the efficient nature of the cleantech sector employees they, on average, produce five times the revenue per employee compared to automotive and manufacturing.

Past winners have reported benefits from the competition with orders and revenue increasing exponentially. The 2011 winner, SMAC, has locked in 90 contracts within Asia, USA and Sydney and the winner from 2012, Enlighten, has reported a 150% increase in incremental revenue earnings.

Here are the 2013 finalists:

BluGlass: Founded in 2005 in Sydney, was created after 15 years of research at Macquarie University in Sydney. Currently on the ASX, BluGlass has developed a breakthrough technology called remote plasma chemical vapour deposition (RPCVD), which revolutionises the approach to manufacturing an essential component (group III nitrides) for many electrical devices. The technology is reported to improve scalability, performance (brighter LED’s and more efficient solar panels), environmental impact and costs by manufacturing the group III nitrides at a lower temperature.

Elevare Energy: Power electronics company with a focus on commercially viable energy storage batteries for electrical power plants. With an aim to solve the grid stability problems and reduce rising power prices, Elevare cost effectively replaces diesel energy generation with renewables and storage. Currently is holding a $5.7 million project with partners Griffith University, Energex and Ergon Energy to develop robust reliable and cost effective distributed energy storage systems.

Global Future Solutions: A biotechnology company that produces environmentally sound products that reduce bacterial contamination in oil/gas wells, extend current lifetimes of oil/gas equipment, increase OH&S for oil and gas workers and provide environmentally friendly options for any oil spill remediation. Global Future uses naturally occurring bacterial and enzyme products to replace the current use of Biocides (toxic chemicals), which are proven to be more effective and just as price competitive.

Microheat Technologies: A private Australian company that specialises in advanced fluid heating technology compact and energy efficient point-of-use instantaneous hot water heating. Currently ranked as one of the most efficient methods of heating fluids with RMIT rating it 99.7% efficient. Founded in 2001 with assistance from Melbourne University Physics lab, the product was patented in 2002. Since then the company has launched its product at the Globe 2010 conference and was a recipient of the Climate Ready Grant from the Federal Government.

Organic Response: A revolutionary lighting control system using Distributed Intelligence to deliver maximum energy savings with optimal occupancy comfort. Basically, the system responds to movement in a room and adjusts the brightness of lights accordingly. The final product can also be retrofitted; no additional wiring or commissioning is required in installation. The product can also be integrated with smart phones and tablets as well as being able to access real time information about the system.

RayGen Resources: A solar technology company that combines the most efficient solar cells with the most efficient collector to produce the world’s lowest cost concentrated solar system. The company has a focus on minimal capital required to get to scale and is designed around key resource needs. The company is another ARENA grant recipient as well as receiving a grant from ETIS in Victoria.

Specialty Coatings, and their primary EnerSheet^TM provides lightweight, cost effective, large span building integrated solar roof sheeting. Enter Sheet^TM is a fibreglass composite roof sheeting product with embedded thin film solar photovoltaic (PV) material.  The product is designed specifically for commercial buildings – combining roofing and solar in one product. The target customers are national distributors of roof sheeting such as BlueScope Steel, Stratco and Hills Holdings.

Z-Filter: Has developed technology that separates solids from liquids by trapping them inside a single zippered filter element referred to as a ‘Sock’. The scalable technology can be universally applied to a range of industries that need filtration, separation or drying. Z-filter technology can be used in extractive industries, such as iron ore and coal, to yield and ultra clean, high value product, minimising pollution at a large scale.  The product can also be used for water reuse from effluent in livestock paddocks. The technology boasts a ten-fold reduction in size, weight and costs when compared to existing technologies.

See more information about the competition here.