As a result, Professor D’Alessandro has been forced to sell the carbon credits she generates through her work at the university to the likes of global carbon investment consortium Frontier, which is backed by Silicon Valley giants Meta, Google and Stripe, for $US1,000 ($1600) a tonne.
“That’s urgently needed to bring us down the cost curve,” she said, adding that University of Sydney students had managed to secure a grant backed by Elon Musk’s philanthropic fund.
But when the United States rolled out its Inflation Reduction Act in August, it included tax incentives to research and develop two primary types of carbon capture.
Direct air capture removes carbon directly from the air, whereas carbon capture and storage seizes carbon from concentrated sources such as the smokestacks of steel and cement plants.
While direct air capture technology – which is still in its development stage – has received a global boost from the United States, the Summit also heard that solar panel development has raced ahead in Australia.
Sundrive solar – which has developed solar panels that use copper instead of silver in their construction – is rapidly expanding its manufacturing plant in Wirrawee, south of Sydney.
Co-founder and chief executive Vincent Allen is adamant Australia can build and service what will emerge as five of the world’s largest solar farms in Australia.
“We invented solar technology in Australia,” Mr Allen said. “We have the best resources, the top three global reserves of every major mineral needed for decarbonising technology, so we can get to net zero for Australia but we can also get net zero for other countries.”
Mr Allen’s Sundrive Solar is backed and chaired by software billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes.
The Atlassian co-founder has also recently taken on the chair role at Sun Cable, a megaproject aiming to export Australian solar power into south-east Asia via a sub-sea cable.
Mr Allen said the emergence of large-scale solar farms in Australia – combined with burgeoning international export infrastructure such as Sun Cable – signals an enormous opportunity for new industry.
John Lasich, co-founder and technical director at Raygen Resources added that the emergence of supportive policy and industry partnerships is quickening the pace of development.
Raygen Resources leverages concentrated sunlight through solar cells that are “about 100 times more expensive, but we get 1000 times more power”.
In addition to its panels, the company has also developed a hot water-based energy storage system, that gives Mr Lasich the option to sell power when prices are good rather than just the middle of the day.
“We’ve got a massive job, to put terawatts of renewable power into the grid, and we’re already experiencing issues with grid stability,” Mr Lasich said.
“So storage of all types, including long-term storage at a low cost is what’s going to be difficult, so wherever we can fit into the equation is what’s attractive.”
