Fundamental gaps in Govt wealth creation strategies

The state & Aust govt's all talk about innovation yet here is the worlds leader in Perovskite Solar Cells floundering for a paltry few million to get its $20m MAD project up.  To their credit recent Australian Government and industry funding commitment of $8.5m to enable a module of commercial scale production to be built alongside CSIRO energy hub in Melbourne is commendable but still not enough in comparison to the task of commercialising cutting edge technology. Yet the benefits to the nation are enormous.

Silicon solar installations worldwide are currently exploding and Perovskite technology is the next lower cost generation. The Arabs know if we continue to burn fossil fuels we are all dead meat and are about to sell shares in Aramco before their reserves are worthless. The CSIRO energy hub Australia could turn into a Perovskite Valley capable of overshadowing Silicon Valley. By collecting desert sunshine through cheaper than silicon Greatcell panels it would be economically viable to create easily transportable NH3 , turning it back into H2 using CSIRO technology at the delivery point. The power could be initially used either to decarbonise natural gas by splitting it into H2 and graphite or split H2O by thermolysis in a combined cycle Haber Bosch ammonia plant.

GSL has the: highest solar to electricity conversion efficiency; longest application experience at pilot scale; and, premium global partners in glass (Pilkington), titanium (Tasnee-CristalTronox), R&D (EPFL, CSIRO), solar (Jinko), building products (CSR, Tata-Corus), production/engineering (VDL). Yet the commercial phase is stalled as GSL scrambles for a paltry amount of funding to supply PSCs for 2x 20MW solar facilities. Will Australia let the biggest growth opportunity on the planet slip through our fingers to be caught by others so we can buy it back at a premium?

If this all sounds a bit far fetched see below how the Germans are very well aware how things are going to pan out on the energy front. Incidentally, the foreign company (good luck to them) even got about the same amount of S.Aust Govt funding that Greatcell now needs!

https://ammoniaindustry.com/renewable-ammonia-demonstration-plant-announced-in-south-australia/