The 21st WREC was held at Murdoch University, Perth WA, over the first week of December and attracted a truly global gathering of researchers, innovators and academics in the broadest aspects of renewable energy and its industrial applications.
For the keen delegates, the Congress kicked off on the Sunday with workshops on “The Hydrogen Economy and Technology”, “Lithium Valley, Renewable Energy, and the Battery Storage Revolution” and “Energy Transition with Hydrogen” and the Hydrogen Roadmap formed the main topic of contention for the Congress as a whole with much industrial money (e.g. Atcoand Fortescue Future Industries FFI) and state government support around Australia and even a competing event in Perth at the same time focused on that subject (Australian Hydrogen Conference (West), 6-7 December at the Crown Perth).
While some contend that “green hydrogen” can be an energy storage and export route of huge proportions, the demonstrations to date have been small and of disappointing inefficiency; and several delegates took pains to point this out along with the huge technical challenges involved in removing those barriers to its widespread use.
The scene was set by UNSW’s Prof Martin Green who gave a very positive and lavishly illustrated talk on the “Era of insanely cheap solar power” focused on photovoltaics (PV) cost reductions and this was followed by many Australian contributions including a stream on indigenous community applications and developing country applications especially in the Asia-Pacific and a presentation by Prof Garry Baverstock AM on “Built Environment Strategies to reduce Anthropic Carbon by at least 30% by 2040” which complemented a tour visit on Tuesday afternoon to his Time Arrow Innovation Hub in Bayswater WA showcasing Time Arrow’s innovative developments in solar water heating and passive/active hybrid solar space heating and cooling systems.
There were also some notable international presentations:
- Deny Waskitho Sigit, PT PLN (Persero), Indonesia spoke on “Indonesian State-Owned Electricity Company (PT PLN) Role in Indonesia Energy Transition: Opportunities & Challenges”;
- Rainer Hinrichs-Rahlwes, Board Member, German Renewable Energy Federation and VP, European Renewable Energies Federation (EREF) spoke on “The European Green Deal and REPowerEU – Accelerating the Renewable Energy Transformation”;
- Shyam S Nandwani, Retired Prof. Universidad Nacional, Costa Rica spoke on “Forty-two Years of Experience with Research, Promotion and Use of Solar Cookers to Save Conventional Fuels and Reduce Carbon Emission”; and
- Michael Williamson, Section Chief, Sustainable Energy Development, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) spoke on “Status of SDG 7 in the Asia Pacific region – Key gaps and opportunities in sustainable energy”.
Our own papers in the broad program of parallel sessions were: “Improving Australian Weather and Climate Data Services” and the poster paper “Extreme Climate Data Files for Design Resilience”.
The Congress ended with two optional all-day tours and Exemplary executive director, Trevor Lee, attended the Guided tour of Kwinana Industries Council (KIC) region including presentations by KIC Director, Chris Oughton, and Biji Kurup, Murdoch University, which included positive reviews of Hydrogen in the material and energy flows within Kwinana, less than two hours south of Perth. The other, longer, tour went north to Yandin Wind Farm, Dandaragan, the Emu Downs Solar Farm, Badgingarra, and Lobster Shack, Solar PV and battery storage, Cervantes.
The full program for WREC-XXI can be accessed now while the publication of the presentations will occur early in the new year. Our own two papers will be uploaded to the Exemplary Energy website soon and a link to them will be included in our next edition of “Exemplary Advances”.
After the formal close of the WREC, Trevor joined another delegate from the Canberra region, Pete Gorton, to ride home across the Nullarbor Plain in Pete’s Tesla 3 with a thoroughly detailed and tightly timed itinerary without a hiccup. In Caiguna, there was even a bio-diesel recharger running on the spent fish’n’chip oil from its roadhouse. As well as being a passive solar, PV-powered resident of Merimbula, NSW, Pete is the ACT media contact for the Australian Electric Vehicle Association (AEVA).
