According to The AuManufaturing, the South Australian government and the private sector have funded studies, planning and negotiations to lead to a final investment decision on the Northern Water project servicing BHP’s copper mines and refineries and the burgeoning green hydrogen and steel industries.
If progressed, Northern Water would see construction of a 260 megalitre a day desalination plant on the Eyre Peninsula, and a 600-kilometre pipeline to transport desalinated water to the Far North.
A comprehensive business case has found the project has the potential to generate more than $5 billion in annual economic benefit and 4,000 ongoing jobs by facilitating development of industries including copper, hydrogen and green iron, along with defence, pastoral, and community uses.

https://www.aumanufacturing.com.au/desalination-to-unlock-copper-green-hydrogen-and-steel-riches
 

According to The Australian Financial Review, distressed listings jumped sharply in pockets of Brisbane and Sydney over the past 12 months, with up to one in five homes listed under distressed conditions amid signs home owners could be struggling to meet their mortgage repayments, new data shows.
AMP chief economist Shane Oliver said distressed selling and mortgage delinquencies could start to rise strongly in the coming months if interest rates stayed at their current level this year.

https://www.afr.com/property/residential/distressed-listings-to-surge-if-interest-rates-stay-on-hold-this-year-20240220-p5f6ab
 

According to the Asahi Shimbun, Idemitsu Kosan, a major oil wholesaler, ENEOS, and Hokkaido Electric Power Co. have announced that they have begun studying the construction of one of the largest hydrogen production facilities in Japan in the western part of Tomakomai City.
The aim is to produce "green hydrogen" by utilizing renewable energy abundant in Hokkaido.
By around 2030, a plant will be constructed in western Tomakomai to produce hydrogen by electrolyzing water. The scale of the facility will be more than 100,000 kilowatts, the largest in Japan, and will be capable of producing more than 10,000 tons of hydrogen per year; 10,000 tons is equivalent to the annual use of 110,000 fuel cell vehicles.

https://digital.asahi.com/articles/ASS2P72XBS2NULFA01D.html
 

According to The Asahi Shimbun, Honda Motor Co. announced it has begun commercial production of a new hydrogen fuel cell system jointly developed with General Motors Co.
The auto giant said it had managed to reduce costs to one-third.
The battery will be fitted to the CR-V sports utility vehicle that will be released in North America and Japan by the end of the year.
Honda said it will also be sold to other companies for use in trucks and other commercial vehicles. Data center operators are expected to rely on the battery as an emergency power source.

https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/15154331
 

According to The Australian Financial Review, Japan has laid down a $US1.4 billion ($2.1 billion) vote of confidence in Australian gas by taking a big slice of Woodside Energy’s Scarborough project in Western Australia, underscoring Asia’s appetite for supply of the fossil fuel for decades to come.
The deal by JERA, Japan’s largest importer of LNG, to acquire a 15.1 per cent stake in the Scarborough development comes six months after Japan LNG agreed to buy a 10 per cent stake in a $US880 million deal.
The two deals, worth $3.5 billion in total, bring four major Japanese players – Tokyo Electric Power, Chubu Electric Power, Sojitz and Sumitomo – into Australia’s biggest resource project, a $16.5 billion development beset by legal challenges and environmental protests.

https://www.afr.com/companies/energy/woodside-in-2-1b-scarborough-lng-sale-to-japanese-20240223-p5f7c4
 

According to The Australian Financial Review, the Queensland government has named the first five venture capital firms to receive a share of a new $130 million fund that will invest in the state’s start-ups.
More than 85 VC firms and accelerators put their hand out for the cash from the Queensland Venture Capital Development Fund (QVCDF). It was originally established as a $75 million fund, but the Queensland government tipped in a further $55 million because of the strong demand for capital.

https://www.afr.com/technology/five-vc-funds-to-share-130m-qld-funding-named-20240214-p5f4rj
 

According to The Australian Financial Review, house prices in inner-ring suburbs in capital cities are poised to outperform this year, fuelled by wealthy home buyers and those who gained large amounts of equity during the pandemic boom, experts say.
Buyers who are receiving financial and practical support from families, an emerging force in those markets, could also drive prices higher.
Jarden chief economist Carlos Cacho said this pool of buyers would continue to dominate the housing market until interest rates fell.
“I think until we see rate cuts, the market will remain driven by higher-income or wealthy buyers,” he said.
“Given these buyers are generally concentrated in the inner-ring suburbs, it probably means those areas will continue to outperform.

https://www.afr.com/property/residential/the-dominant-force-driving-house-prices-higher-20240214-p5f4sj
 

According to The Asahi Shimbun, Japanese researchers said they have produced three piglets cloned from a pig that was genetically modified to prevent rejection of its organs in transplants to humans.
PorMedTec Co., a Kawasaki-based company established by the Meiji University International Institute for Bio-Resource Research, said on Feb. 13 that the three piglets were born by C-section on Feb. 11.
A team consisting of researchers from Kagoshima University and Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine plans to transplant the pigs’ kidneys into monkeys to verify the safety of the organs. If all goes well, they hope to start the operations this summer.
The eventual goal is to transplant pig kidneys into humans.

https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/15163169
 

According to The Jiji News, Monet Technologies Inc., a Japanese mobility service firm partly owned by Toyota Motor Corp., plans to test a self-driving taxi service in Tokyo's Odaiba district, starting in July, people familiar with the matter said.
The test will start with Level 2 partially automated driving technology and will examine the feasibility of Level 4 technology that provides fully automated driving under certain conditions.

https://sp.m.jiji.com/english/show/31249

According to The Australian Financial Review, the Albanese government is planning a “think big” multibillion-dollar initiative to try to compete with the United States’ $624 billion Inflation Reduction Act and similar schemes elsewhere, in a bid to drive the domestic development of clean energy technology.
The scheme, which sources said is likely to be a combination of subsidies and co-investment, will aim to stem the flow of capital to the US, where President Joe Biden’s IRA is acting as a magnet.
The government already has several initiatives in play but has been under pressure to do more, including from Squadron Energy’s Andrew Forrest, who is seeking government support to develop the commercially viable production of green hydrogen.
He has argued previously that Australia should join forces with the likes of Japan and Germany to help counter the pull of the IRA.

https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/think-big-pm-plans-cash-splash-on-green-fund-20240215-p5f53s