Close×

First came craft beer and distributed brewing. Consumers developed a taste for local niche brews, and the number of small breweries in Australia exploded, stealing market share from industry giants.

Now comes solar power and distributed energy, with craft brewers across Australia looking to source their own home-grown electricity in place of grid offerings.

The cost of rooftop solar installations has been steadily falling in recent years, as the technology matures and the production of panels, led by China, expands rapidly.

Globally, solar is now the largest source of newly installed power generation as of 2016. So, what does this mean for Australian manufacturing businesses?

Large-scale solar generation currently costs around $60-70/MWh to produce, with prices predicted to fall to around $50-$55/MWh in the next few years.

In comparison, retail electricity charges are around $200 – $300/MWh, with most contracts towards the higher end of this range.

Read the rest of this article >>

Packaging News

The early bird rate for the 2025 Australasian Packaging Conference, to be held on 6-7 May at the Sofitel Sydney Wentworth, NSW, is closing on 4 April.

A packaging symposium held in Melbourne last week brought together some of the industry leading minds to share up-to-the-minute ideas on the most pressing issues for packaging. Lindy Hughson moderated the event and filed this report.

PKN EXCLUSIVE: In a groundbreaking development, Australian-based Zipform Packaging has launched a paper bottle made from over 95 per cent wood-based fibre, containing no plastic liner, and incorporating more than 50 per cent post-consumer recycled content.