Lithium is the brand new black as demand for electrical automobiles and renewable vitality batteries grows, so Australia’s largest local weather tech startup accelerator EnergyLab, has determined to do one thing about it, backing 11 startups within the house in a brand new program

Australia produces 60% of the world’s lithium, however solely represents 1% of worldwide product worth within the lithium battery worth chain, so EnergyLab is trying to transfer the dial with the inaugural Supercharge Australia Innovation Problem.

The 11 startups concerned (see under) vary from builders of novel cell chemistries to electrical automobile upscalers and demanding metals recyclers.

The accelerator’s Supercharge Australia initiative goals to drive native lithium battery innovation, matching the startups concerned with mentors and consultants, and setting them as much as pitch in Sydney on March 30. A panel of consultants from CSIRO, Boundless, New Power Nexus, and EnergyLab will then select an final winner.

Kirk McDonald, Mission Supervisor Supercharge Australia stated the startup cohort is “the vanguard of a decarbonised export powerhouse” for our area and the world.

“Australia is now understanding the huge alternatives that its mineral and renewable vitality endowment presents, and the decarbonisation tasks it calls for,” he stated.

New Power Nexus CEO Danny Kennedy stated: “Australian innovators are uniquely positioned to produce rising and mature world markets with low impression lithium merchandise and sources to assist our vitality transition with higher batteries”.

The startups concerned are

• EV FireSafe for Enterprise, co-founded by two skilled firefighters, which offers electrical automobile (EV) hearth and security data for everybody working with electrified transport;

• Geelong-based FARSTE DRIVE which has developed an economical hub motor to counter EV motor inefficiency and permit inner combustion engine automobiles to be transformed to EVs cheaply and effectively;

• Sydney-based Gelion, a battery storage innovator creating new lithium sulfur and lithium-silicon-sulfur applied sciences to enhance efficiency, value and security for subsequent technology battery purposes;

• The Good Automobile Firm, based in Hobart, which offers inexpensive EVs by means of bulk-buys, direct gross sales and subscription. They import new and second-hand EVs to assist drive a second-hand EV market in Australia and might upcycle EVs with newer batteries and enhanced performance to permit bidirectional charging;

• Prohelion, based in Brisbane, which designs and sells battery monitoring techniques, bespoke light-weight high-power battery options, equipment, monitoring and consulting providers;

• Renewable Metals, based mostly in Perth, which recycles lithium batteries utilizing a novel expertise recovering six crucial metals – lithium, nickel, cobalt, copper, manganese, and graphite – from end-of-life batteries minimising waste by-products;

• Roev, which converts massive fleets of utes to electrical, fixing unmet demand and managing vitality utilization;

• Sicona Battery Applied sciences which makes use of a College of Wollongong-developed expertise to provide subsequent gen battery supplies expertise used within the anodes of lithium-ion batteries for electric-mobility and storage of renewable vitality;

• Brisbane-based Sustainable Lithium Cells Australia, which allows lithium battery recycling and reduces the carbon footprint of lithium battery development by extracting worth from previous batteries and offering an economical provide of fine situation second-life cells to be used in e-mobility and vitality initiatives.

• The Australian Nationwide College’s Syenta which makes multi-material additive manufacturing gadgets for electronics resembling photo voltaic cells, batteries, sensors, and circuit boards with excessive decision and excessive pace; and,