• Women in Business Advisory Program scholarship winners announced
• International defence trade show coming to South Australia in 2024
• ARENA approves $65 million in funding to concentrated solar power plant
• Adelaide company to light up GWS Giants
• Timberlink celebrates 10 years with makeover

Women in Business Advisory Program scholarship winners announced

Almost 40 South Australian women have received scholarships to grow their businesses as part of the new Women in Business Advisory Program which will commence in February of 2023.

The 38 winners come from a variety of sectors and all have their businesses headquartered in South Australia with an annual turnover of at least $250,000.

The program is a collaboration between the South Australian Government and Behind Closed Doors, a membership organisation that provides mentoring, business advisory and networking opportunities to women in business.

Managing Director of Behind Closed Doors, Donny Walford, said 50 business leaders were interviewed by an independent panel of Business Advisors and Entrepreneurs before the winners were picked.

“It is very encouraging for South Australia to have so many talented female entrepreneurs and with the rise in the popularity of technology, there are many new opportunities for female business owners to grow their businesses and go global,” Walford said.

The scholarship winners will receive access to executive and business owners’ women’s networks; invitations to networking functions with senior people in business and government; and opportunities for Board Directorships.

The winners are listed on the Behind Closed Doors website.

International defence trade show coming to South Australia in 2024

The leading international maritime, air and space technologies defence event – MAST 2024 – will be held from 19-21 November 2024 at the Adelaide Convention Centre.

Adelaide is the first southern hemisphere city to host the event in its 17-year history.

MAST 2024 is themed “Talent, Technologies, Transfer” and will explore issues of relevance to the Indo-Pacific region, drawing thousands of senior level government, military representatives and researchers from across the global defence community at a number of business gatherings, tradeshows and talent fairs.

MAST (Maritime/Air Systems & Technologies) CEO Warren Edge thanked the South Australian government for its support to bring the event to Adelaide.

“We look forward to an ongoing relationship to regularly unite global defence communities – from sea-bed to space – in Australia’s Defence State,” Edge said.

“There is no other defence ecosystem in Australia like the “20 Minute City” of Adelaide, where you can meet SME innovators, primes, manufacturers, government officials and military leaders in such close proximity. Our combination of events will speed that process up – all under one roof.”

Besides the main defence industries being on show, the Australian Cyber Collaboration Centre will live-stream a hackathon from its cyber range at Lot Fourteen.

Jemalong concentrated solar thermal power pilot project. Photo: Vast Solar.

ARENA approves $65 million in funding to concentrated solar power plant

The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) has approved $65 million in funding for concentrated solar thermal power (CSP) company, Vast Solar to construct VS1, a 30 MW / 288 MWh CSP plant in Port Augusta.

The project aims to demonstrate how CSP can provide reliable, dispatchable renewable energy and provide another pathway to help Australian industry decarbonise.

CSP uses mirrors to concentrate and capture the sun’s heat in solar receivers with high temperature heat transferred via sodium and stored in molten salt.

The stored heat is then used to heat water and create steam to power a turbine to produce electricity.

Stored heat can also be used to directly decarbonise some industrial processes.

ARENA CEO Darren Miller said the expansion of Vast Solar’s technology into a commercial scale project shows that CSP technology could play an important role in generating and storing renewable energy at scale.

“With the increasing need for dispatchable renewable generation and longer duration energy storage, CSP has potential to assist Australia’s energy transition alongside pumped hydro and large scale batteries,” Miller said.

The funding is conditional upon the project reaching financial close in late 2023 with VS1 expected to take two years to build with commercial operations commencing in late 2025.

Adelaide company to light up GWS Giants

Greater Western Sydney Giants in VALO gear. Photo: GWS.

Adelaide-based advanced technology company specialising in LED lighting and digital displays, VALO has become a major partner of the Greater Western Sydney Giants.

The partnership will see the club’s home in Sydney Olympic Park named the VALO Community Centre and VALO logos will appear on training balls and polos for both the men’s and women’s teams.

The partnership will be on show in Adelaide on Sunday, April 16 when the Giants play Hawthorn at the Norwood Oval for the Gather Round.

VALO has installed new broadcast-quality lighting at Norwood Oval, making it the most technologically advanced and brightest suburban AFL ground in South Australia.

VALO Founder and CEO Aaron Hickmann said both VALO and the Giants are young businesses that have “already begun to build a strong legacy and are passionate about supporting their local communities.

“VALO’s partnership with the Giants comes as we expand into NSW and the ACT, both of which the team has a presence in,” Hickmann said.

Timberlink celebrates 10 years with makeover

Timberlink celebrates 10 years. Photo: Timberlink.

Australian timber products manufacturing business Timberlink will mark a decade of operation with two new projects and an updated logo to reflect its move into wood-plastic composites.

Timberlink was formed in February 2013, following the sale of Gunns Limited’s softwood sawmilling assets, and is part of an integrated softwood forestry business that is managed by New Forests.

The business has sawmills at Tarpeena in South Australia and Bell Bay in Tasmania that manufacture plantation structural pine products.

Timberlink CEO Ian Tyson said the company will complete two innovation projects this year.

One project is in mass timber with CLT, which is pieces of laminated structural timber glued at a 90-degree angle to the layer above, giving the product strength in both directions, and GLT, which is pieces layered and glued on each other in the same direction and used mostly in structural beams or columns.

The other project is with wood-plastic composites.

“These projects will take Timberlink from being primarily a structural timber manufacturer to a structural engineered timber products and solutions business, a remarkable change in ten years,” Tyson said.