Clean-tech manufacturing could create $215bn revenue and 53k jobs by 2035: new report

Building clean-tech manufacturing in Australia could create of up to $215bn in revenue and 53,000 new jobs by 2035, according to a new report by an independent think tank.

Beyond Zero Emissions is calling on Australia to seize the opportunity and harness the nation’s abundant resources to help move the world towards net zero. It comes as the Albanese government made major investments in clean-tech hubs in Gladstone, Queensland and the NSW Hunter Region over the last month.

BZE chief executive Heidi Lee said Australia already had the skills and key technologies needed to create a zero emissions economy, we just needed to use them.

“From making batteries to recycling steel, the future is already being made in Australia,” she said.

Growing just five onshore clean-tech supply chains – solar, wind, batteries, heat pumps and commercial EVs – could generate $215bn in domestic revenue and create up to 53,000 new jobs by 2035, according to the report.

The most promising sector is battery technology, which has the potential to contribute at least $114bn in revenue – accounting for more than half of the proposed revenue growth.

Australia’s grid is powered by 36 per cent renewables and could climb to 93 per cent renewables as early as 2035, according to the Australian Energy Market Operator’s green energy export scenario.

More than 70,000 gigawatts/hour of battery storage will be needed to support the booming electric vehicle transition and another 7800 gigawatts/hour to support at-home renewable power systems.

To do this, Australia will need a dramatic scale-up of the nation’s manufacturing capabilities to help build clean technologies.

The report suggests Australia has a once-in-a-generation opportunity to re-industrialise the nation and create jobs by incentivising more value-added onshore processing of mined resources and diversifying the supply chain in each key clean technology.

Australia is ranked highly for its raw material reserves, with opportunity to grow production of cobalt, copper, nickel, silver and vanadium in the short-to-medium term.

The report has nominated 13 places across almost every state and territory to be targeted as renewable energy industrial precincts, where energy-intensive manufacturing facilities can be established.

They include Gladstone in Queensland and the Hunter Region in NSW – both former coalmining hubs and already earmarked by the government for major funding to grow their clean-tech industries.

Last month, the Albanese government committed $400m in new loans to Australian company Alpha HPA to deliver the nation’s first high-purity alumina processing facility in Gladstone.

A few weeks before that $1bn in federal funding was announced to secure Australia’s place as a major player in the global solar manufacturing supply chain, with plans to get started in the NSW Hunter Region.