Contributed by Ugly

A team of Australian experts have succeeded in winning the bid to hold the twenty first International Meeting on Lithium Batteries.  The event will be hosted by the CSIRO in Sydney during 2022.

This is a prestigious recognition of the ground-breaking work carried out by the organisation. In particular, world leadership in developing electrolytes based on ionic liquids – a technology used for making the lithium batteries that power our laptops, mobile phones and electric vehicles safer and more efficient.

Further advances are being made on advancing lithium-ion batteries, and even the best advice for charging your batteries. Together with the building of the Tesla batteries, it shows there is a  top-class research community in Australia.

This deserves recognition by the wider Australian community. Once again, this shows the existence of the capability of being world class, and hopefully, this time around, those doing this important work will get the support they help they need.

It has not often been the case. Advances made by researchers have usually had to be sold overseas, because of the lack of needed funding.  They could have been applied to building leading edge industries. They became  advantages for others instead.

CSIRO funding has been whittled down, especially when it comes to research on matters that are relevant to building of clean technologies. But researchers have doggedly persisted under difficult circumstances.

The rise of the lithium battery is important to improving the capacity to store energy, as well as to bringing an end to dependency on fossil fuel-based transport. Vehicles on the road using the old technology, are a major emitter of global warming and other pollutants into the atmosphere. In any strategy to reduce the risk of global warming, lithium batteries are going to play a part.

Working on new technology can do a great deal to help Australia transform our economy, towards the new industries of the future. Failure to give our pioneers sufficient support will eventually hold them back and lock Australia into the past. This would come at an economic cost.

Achievements made on the lithium batteries are pulling in the other direction. The more support that it gets, the greater the benefit for the nation and the world.