A woman has been left shaken after she claims to have uncovered a “terrifying” discovery inside her tampon.
TikTok user Celia took to the app with a video of her opening up the strange looking tampon in the hopes to find some answers.
She opened up the Tampax brand applicator tampon and allegedly discovered a small metal item hiding inside.
Tampax applicator tampons are originally from the USA, and are also available in Australia.
“So I was just going to the bathroom like normal, and I was putting in a tampon” she started the video.
“I grabbed one from my Tampax bag because there is a shortage, so I’ve been using Tampax, not my organic, and look at this.
“You can clearly see that the color of the actual tampon, they’re all purple, every single Tampax is purple, these are supers.
“Then I found this. I thought, maybe it’s a new colour, so then I took it out and um, what?
“So I just opened it up, what is that?” she asked, as she took out the strange metal object.
The now-viral video has since racked up 8.4 million views and nearly 9,000 comments from concerned followers.
“My brain instantly said tracker” someone said.
“Imagine some younger girl not knowing that isn’t unusual and using it” another commented.
“I know accidents happen, but women already have enough to worry about.”
“I’m scared” said another commenter.
“Stay safe ladies.”
In a follow up video, Celia explained that she did not actually buy the box of tampons from a store, but claims her friend who works at the Tampax factory gave her some directly.
“Tampax send me a prepaid mailing bag to send them the tampon and the contents” she said in another video.
“Then they included a letter from Tampax saying that they were going to send me compensation, I was not expecting that, I don’t know what that entails.
“I only posted this video, because if someone who was inexperienced got this in their hands, and didn’t realize there was something wrong with it, and they started to use it, I feel like that’s really scary.
“This should not be happening, no matter if you were given it or if you bought it, it shouldn’t have left the factory. It doesn’t matter how I got it in my hands.
“I think that’s the main issue here.”
Many people speculated that the metal inside the tampon was part of the testers and possibly slipped through accidentally.
“It looks like it could be a defect detection tester?” someone commented.
“So they put it in on the line to see if their quality control system picks up that it is defective.”
“Quality control tester” another person said.
“The ‘SS’ is for stainless steel. It’s non-magnetic and harder to detect.”
News.com.au have reached out to Procter & Gamble, the owner of Tampax, for comment.
In an email to staff seen by The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age Canva told staff it has $US700 million in the bank, is still hiring and unlike the vast majority of its tech start-up peers, it is profitable.
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“We had planned to dip out of profitability this year to invest in further accelerating growth,” Perkins wrote in the email. “However, we changed course as soon as we noticed the macroeconomic environment changing and are now back to being profitable again this year, for the sixth year in a row.”
Canva is pivotal to the success of Australia’s start-up sector. At $US40 billion, the company was valued about 8 times larger than the country’s next largest start-up, payments firm Airwallex.
Canva’s surging valuation has helped its biggest backers — Blackbird Ventures, AirTree Ventures and Square Peg Capital — cement their status as the country’s pre-eminent venture funds.
Technology stocks have been hammered this year due to concerns about inflation and global growth. Loss-making companies that have pursued growth before profits, and that depend on external funding to sustain their operations, have been hit the hardest in the downturn.
But Obrecht said Canva has been profitable for the last five years and does not need to raise any more funding. He said a public listing of Canva shares was still on the “distant horizon”.
“We love being a private company, which is why the sort of external noise around valuations is just annoying,” he said.
Canva is taking in more than $US1 billion in revenue a year, Obrecht said. Industry sources familiar with the company, who were not authorized to speak on record, said its revenue was growing at about 70 per cent annually.
Obrecht would not confirm the exact figure, but said Canva had more than 10 million paying subscribers and was seeing particular growth from its Teams product, which is aimed at business customers. The company is still hiring but has scaled back marketing expenditure.
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One of the few areas where a declining valuation for a privately held tech business has an immediate impact is for staff who were given share rights at a very high valuation, meaning they received fewer. Obrecht, who is also the company’s chief operating officer, said Canva was looking at topping up those workers.
“It’s something we’re considering because we value our employees more than anything else in the world and want to ensure that they feel valued and everything’s all aligned there,” he said.
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“Any old vacancies that come [on the market]if the fit-outs are older than five or seven years, then they need to be refitted,” he said.
“It’s a must in this current environment because anything that presents as just four walls and empty space will be left behind. People know what they want – lighter, brighter, fresher and collaborative spaces.”
New shower and changing facilities at 136 Exhibition Street.Credit:Jason South.
The Property Council report pointed to an oversupply of second-grade office space, with 14 per cent of the lesser-grade buildings empty compared to 12 per cent of prime buildings. The only category of office space with increased demand in the past six months was “prime stock” luxury buildings.
“It’s like the residential market these days; if it’s not dressed up, it’s going to struggle,” Martinez said.
Ashley Buller, Victorian head of office leasing for commercial real estate agency CBRE, said his firm was also aware of the demand for high-quality offices.
“High-rise, premium-grade rents in Melbourne’s east end have risen strongly, with a number of transactions reflecting 15-25 per cent improvements against pre-COVID levels,” he said.
The increase in empty offices continued even though the number of people returning to work in city offices stalled. According to the lobby group’s most recent data, office occupancy stalled at 49 per cent in June.
“We’re in a bit of a holding pattern at the moment because we’ve clearly got a COVID spike in the community, [and] some beefed up health messaging and advice. But that’s not going to last forever,” said Lowcock.
“We’re having a tricky winter, but from what we’ve seen in other cities, we definitely think Melbourne is capable of further increases in office occupancy.”
Department of Transport statistics show patronage on Melbourne’s trains and trams has increased since six months ago, but remains well below pre-pandemic levels. In July, average weekday patronage on Metro Trains was 58 per cent of pre-COVID levels, while trams were at 67 per cent, and V/Line services were at 55 per cent.
Credit:Matt Golding
Data shows pedestrian numbers have increased in the Melbourne CBD in the past six months, but there are half as many people on foot as there were before COVID-19.
According to the City of Melbourne, the average number of pedestrians using the Flinders Street Station underpass between 6am and 10pm jumped 63 per cent from 11,012 people in February to 17,247 in July.
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Although demand for offices remains steady, Lowcock said the high amount of subleasing in Melbourne compared to other cities was “some cause for concern” because it indicated tenants had too much unused space.
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Small regional communities are working to secure their own energy futures amid electricity price rises and widespread fears of blackouts.
Key points:
Regional Victorian towns Ballan and Pomonal are investigating a community battery
Experts say batteries will be a big part of Australia’s renewable energy transition
Questions remain around the role community level batteries will play in the mix
A new report from the Australian Energy Market Operator shows electricity prices rose to their highest levels on record in the three months to June 30, leading to increasing energy bills across the east coast.
Communities like Ballan, 80 kilometers north-west of Melbourne, are driving their own renewable energy projects as they seek reliability, lower costs, and reduced environmental impact.
The volunteer-run Moorabool Environment Group is working with residents on the first steps of a project to bring a community battery to the town of almost 3,400 people.
Rose De la Cruz has solar panels on her home in Ballan and would like to link to a community battery.(Supplied: Rose De la Cruz)
Resident and group member Rose De la Cruz said Ballan was a “good candidate” for the technology.
“We do suffer from power outages quite a lot here and we have a growing lot of residential houses with solar on their roofs,” she said.
“At the moment everybody is talking about the cost of electricity, so people are interested in anything that will bring down the cost.”
The basic concept was for households and organizations with rooftop solar to feed into a shared battery and draw out electricity when needed.
Ben McGowan inspects a mid-sized battery at Yackandandah.(ABC News: Emilia Terzon)
Increasing take-up
Community batteries are becoming an increasingly popular option for regional communities.
The first community battery in Yackandandah, a small tourist town in north-east Victoria, was launched in July 2021 after two years of planning and fundraising.
The 274-kilowatt-hour battery that supplies electricity to 40 homes from solar panels on the roof of an old sawmill is part of a bigger mission to have the entire town powered by renewable energy.
It also serves as a backup power supply.
Residents in the western Victorian town of Pomonal, on the edge of the power grid, are also looking for solutions to eliminate blackout concerns.
Pomonal Power People member Dee-Ann Kelly said more people had become interested in the idea of a community battery.
Grampians Community Power Hub hosted a community meeting at Pomonal.(Supplied)
“I am interested in the idea that not everyone needs to have solar,” she said.
“Down the track I am willing to do get solar, but for now I want to be able to utilize where we have got solar and where we may have solar in the future.”
She said the project was also about supporting people who did not have the ability to put solar panels on their properties.
“We have talked about not leaving people behind,” she said.
The town is part of a community battery feasibility study and is waiting for a report before deciding on the next steps.
Ms Kelly said sustaining interest and driving the project could be a challenge, given it could take many years and was not an “overnight solution”.
A community battery in Meadow Springs, Western Australia, is accessed by 52 homes.(Supplied: Western Power)
But she said she was confident the community’s desire for power reliability during disasters, such as bushfires, and broad focus on sustainability would drive continued support.
“We live in the beautiful Grampians and have nature all around us. This is what drives people to want to have a future and be involved in making really important decisions,” she said.
clean energy future
Australia Institute energy advisor Dan Cass said Australia had been over-reliant on “risky and expensive” coal and “increasingly expensive” gas.
Mr Cass said the community battery model would be part of the move to build clean energy resources quickly to avoid another energy crisis.
A community battery in the Perth suburb of Port Kennedy.(Supplied: Western Power)
He said the Australian Energy Market Operator modeling showed a need to build thousands of gigawatts worth of battery storage over the next several years.
“We need a lot more batteries on the grid and we need them urgently,” he said.
“The question is who owns the batteries and what is the scale at which they are built?”
Mr Cass said it was likely large batteries, mid-scale community batteries, and small household batteries would be part of the solution.
“I think we will find eventually every freestanding roof in the country will be able to have solar panels and in some cases that will be backed up by batteries,” he said.
“It will give enormous power and control back to energy consumers and communities as well as being more resilient and zero emissions.
“Australia is in a great position … it is just a matter of planning this out well and this will be the last energy crisis Australia will ever need to face.”
A 25-year-old buying a two-storey house with a picturesque garden for just over $300,000 harks back to the early 1990s.
Key points:
Parts of regional Queensland have seen property prices continue to rise in July, bucking national trends
Regional Australia Institute says housing affordability will see large parts of regional Queensland more insulated from property price drops than cities
The Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast markets are exceptions, recording accelerated declines in recent months
But in outback Queensland towns such as Longreach, it’s the norm.
The Reserve Bank of Australia yesterday raised interest rates for the fourth consecutive month, but Longreach resident Ben Galea said he was not stressed.
“When it comes time for my fixed interest rate to change … I don’t have to change my lifestyle,” Mr Galea said.
“It’s a great town. It’s buzzing. There are a lot of young people here. There are lots to do, lots of sports. It’s brilliant.
“There are things that we don’t have out here. It costs money to fly back to the coast. You don’t see family as often. These are the things you give up.”
As interest rates rise, home values in Australia are dropping at their fastest pace since the global financial crisis, with the latest data showing that the nation’s median property value has dropped by 2 per cent since the beginning of May, to $747,182.
Mr Galea purchased his home last year for $310,000 at a “beautiful” fixed rate of 1.9 per cent.(Supplied)
But parts of regional Queensland are tipped to be more insulated from price drops than cities, and some regions have continued to see property prices increase in the last month.
Regional Australia Institute chief executive Liz Ritchie said it was mostly due to housing affordability in the regions.
“What we won’t see is the markets in regional Australia and regional Queensland fall as sharply,” she said.
“In the past couple of years, regions have seen significant price growth… but this is off years of just having steady incremental growth.
“The shocks that we’re seeing with interest rate hikes just won’t be felt in the same way, particularly in Queensland’s more rural and remote communities.”
Regional buyers ‘not overly worried’
Toowoomba-based Heritage Bank’s chief operating officer Dan Dredge said recent hikes to interest rates had not affected the number of people applying for home loans in regional Queensland through his bank.
Mr Galea says he loves the lifestyle and community in western Queensland.(ABC Western Qld: Victoria Pengilley)
“We’re not seeing people being overly worried about interest rate rises,” Mr Dredge said.
“What we’re seeing is people budgeting and setting their expectations on higher interest rates, moving forward.”
Data from CoreLogic found dwelling values in regional Queensland fell by 0.8 per cent in July, compared to larger falls of 2.2 per cent in Sydney and 1.5 per cent in Melbourne.
It was the first monthly decline for regional Queensland since August 2020 and follows record annual gains, with regional house prices increasing by 19 per cent over the past year.
But the data is not as simple as it seems.
CoreLogic head of research Eliza Owen said the decline in regional Queensland in July was a result of large price drops of more than 1 per cent in the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast markets, where median house prices were higher than in Brisbane.
“The Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast have seen more accelerated declines in recent months due to interest having more of a dampening effect on these relatively expensive markets,” Ms Owen said.
“Smaller and more affordable markets of Queensland may have shown modest gains over the month of July, but even here, monthly growth rates have been broadly slowing since earlier in the year.”
In July, property prices fell by 1.1 per cent on the Gold Coast and 1.4 per cent on the Sunshine Coast, according to CoreLogic. (ABC News: Dominic Cansdale)
House prices on rise in ‘affordable’ regions
Bucking the trend of capital cities, home values have continued to increase in July at a slowing rate across Wide Bay (up 0.6 per cent), Toowoomba (up 0.7 per cent), the Darling Downs – Maranoa (up 1.8 per cent), and Cairns (up 0.1 per cent).
“It is expected that these markets may also see a decline in values in the coming months against higher interest rate settings,” Ms Owen said.
Mr Dredge expects continued demand for new home purchases in regional Queensland.(Supplied)
But Mr Dredge said strong growth in regional areas would continue to drive demand for housing and home loans.
“You continue to see for hire or job signs in windows on the main street and Toowoomba. I don’t see that going away anytime soon,” he said.
“I think that’s going to lead to continued demand for new home purchases and home loans.
“Historically, as long as people have good jobs and good savings buffers, they’re able to service their home loans.”
The Regional Australia Institute also forecasts a continued movement of people from capital cities into regional areas.
Ms Ritchie urges there needs to be a government focus on increasing housing supply and infrastructure to ensure a smooth transition for regional Australia.
“We continue to believe that city to regional migration will continue to flow at similar, if not even higher levels,” she said.
“If you look at the way that our country has shifted due to COVID, the ability to move, flexibility … to live where you love and have that opportunity.
“You’ve got a trend that is not going to stop any time soon.”
Aussies are tightening their belts to save money. (Source: Getty)
Soaring and have many Aussies rethinking their spending habits, with “fun” expenses on the chopping block for many households.
Going to restaurants was the first thing Aussies had been cutting back on, according to a Finder survey of more than 2,000 people.
Almost a quarter (22 per cent) said they would forgo meals out to save money.
Online shopping was also a popular expense to bin, with 13 per cent putting it down as the first thing they would stop doing if their budget was under pressure.
TV subscriptions were also a popular sacrifice (10 per cent), followed by nights out at the pub (9 per cent).
Others were prepared to cut their gym memberships (6 per cent), takeaway coffees (6 per cent), car trips (5 per cent) and even heating and cooling in the home (5 per cent).
Only 2 per cent said they would stop their health insurance, and 1 per cent said they would ax their child’s music or sport lessons.
Around 15 per cent said they wouldn’t curb their spending at all, even if their expenses rose suddenly.
Young people were much more likely to cut back (94 per cent) than boomers (68 per cent) in the face of financial pressures.
“Australians are tightening their belts and making some tricky decisions about how they spend their cash,” Rebecca Pike, money expert at Finder, said.
“’Fun’ has been forced to take a backseat as households grapple with pressures to their budget, including rising interest rates and inflation.”
Pike recommended grouping expenses into essentials and non-essentials.
“Cut from the non-essentials column first and shop around – now is the time to really think about where and how you can save money,” she said.
If your expenses started to suddenly increase, what would be the first thing you would cut out to save money?
Going to restaurants
22%
I wouldn’t cut anything out
fifteen%
Online shopping
13%
TVsubscription
10%
Going to bars/pubs
9%
gym membership
6%
take away coffee
6%
driving my car
5%
Heating/cooling my home
5%
health insurance
two%
other
two%
My child’s sport/music lessons or extracurriculars
1%
life insurance
1%
Toys for my kids
1%
Kids school fees
1%
Data source from Finder.
Inflation a bigger concern than mortgage debt
The cost of living was found to be the biggest financial concern for Aussies at the moment (61 per cent), according to a Money.com.au survey.
This was followed by having a financial buffer in case of an emergency (43 per cent) and having enough cash flow to pay bills (39 per cent).
The ability to meet mortgage repayments amid interest rate increases ranked sixth – chosen as one of the top concerns for 27 per cent of respondents.
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The last remaining commercial guava farmer in the Northern Rivers of New South Wales is preparing to rip out two-thirds of the orchard’s 3,000 trees.
Key points:
The Schmidts sell guavas from 1,000 trees to Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne markets for a premium price
Wet weather made it difficult for the Newrybar couple to get in the orchard to harvest
A Bangalow craft beer brewery has used excess guava fruit to produce a seasonal sour beer
It follows one of Australia’s largest growers bulldozing his orchard on the Alstonville plateau earlier this year to convert to macadamias.
Now Phillip and Janice Schmidt at nearby Newrybar are also considering the popular native nut as a replacement tree crop.
“Avocados? Macadamias? We’re yet to make our mind up, but obviously, the land should be kept productive for the sake of the country and everyone,” Mr Schmidt said.
Guava trees bulldozed and pushed into piles on the Alstonville Plateau.(Rural ABC: Kim Honan)
The Schmidts sell guavas from 1,000 trees to Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne markets for a premium price.
But the fruit from the remaining 2,000 trees, previously sold for juicing, is being left to rot on the ground or gobbled up by cattle on agistment.
The former CSIRO geologist, who “accidentally” fell into guava farming when he bought the coastal property on retirement, said they were not dependent on the juicing income, but for others in the industry, it had been devastating.
“It’s been a declining part of our industry for over 10 years, and it’s finally reached the stage where I don’t think any guavas from northern NSW are used for juicing,” he said.
“We don’t really know what the cause of it is, but I suspect that imports from overseas could be a factor.”
But Queensland-based processor Tropico Fruits has confirmed it does not import any guava product for its juices.
Mr Schmidt says the cattle love the guavas.(Rural ABC: Kim Honan)
The company has in previous years bought guavas from the Northern Rivers but said it never had juicing contracts with growers.
Tropico Fruits chief executive Dave Alderton said it had individual standalone seasonal arrangements based on each year’s supply and demand.
He said that despite offering such an arrangement this year for guavas, neither grower in the Northern Rivers was able to supply the fruit.
Newrybar Guavas mostly grow Hawaiian pink guavas and some whites.(Rural ABC: Kim Honan)
Constant rain hurts guava harvest
In addition to the unsold juice fruit, the weeks of rain during this year’s harvest resulted in an excess of table fruit on the farm.
Mr Schmidt said that initially, it was looking like a bumper guava season.
“But then we kept on having rain, more rain, more rain until we reached the point where we were unable to actually pick the fruit because we had no means of accessing or at least getting a vehicle down to take the fruit out,” he said.
“We lost two weeks when we just simply couldn’t get down here, and those two weeks are probably our most productive actually.”
These guavas will be sold to Melbourne, Brisbane or Sydney markets for a premium price.(Rural ABC: Kim Honan)
The result was a lot of fruit too ripe for the market that ended up being shared with friends or given to the cattle.
“The cattle love it,” he said.
“They actually follow us down to the packing shed, and they turn up at the packing shed and wait outside.”
The upside to the constant rain was much larger guavas, with the skin able to keep up with the growth of the fruit without splitting.
Guavas saved for sour beer
While the 40-year-old guava industry in the Northern Rivers has declined dramatically, the craft brewery sector in the region is booming.
The newest brewery, Common People Brewing Co at nearby Bangalow, is working with local producers on special batch brews.
Common People Brewing Co produced a seasonal beer using excess fruit from Newrybar Guavas.(Rural ABC: Kim Honan)
General manager Jay Kempnich said they sourced some of the Schmidts’ excess fruit to make a limited edition seasonal beer for the weekend’s self-drive Harvest Food Trail.
“We infused guava and some of our fresh lilly pillies from our own trees from out the front of the brewery here into a sour beer and made a delicious, refreshing guava beer,” he said.
The brewery, which opened in January, brews 600 liters at a time with eight beers, three of those its flagship beers.
Brewery founders and co-owners Drew Tourle (left) and Jay Kempnich.(Rural ABC: Kim Honan)
“Then we’ve got the other five taps that are dedicated to doing seasonal and special batch brews, using local ingredients from the area and collaborations with local businesses where we can,” he said.
Another of those collaborations is with Barefoot Farm Byron, a pecan grower and processor in the nearby Eltham Valley.
“We put 10 kilos of their pecan nuts into one of our 600-liter batches and have done a full batch of a pecan-infused brown ale,” he said.
The Bangalow brewery has used local pecans to make brown ale.(Rural ABC: Kim Honan)
Orica gets a double benefit: rising demand for these digital products and services but also improved profitability because these technology businesses operate with much higher margins than the group’s core explosives business.
breathing space
Increasing technology sales and improving margins partially help explain the 40 per cent rise in Orica’s share price over the past 12 months, but the big swing factor has been surging demand for explosives in a world where supply chain disruptions have been heightened by the war in Ukraine ; Russia was previously one of the world’s biggest exporters of ammonia and ammonium nitrate, the key ingredients in explosives.
Gandhi has done a good job passing through rampant inflationary pressures – including rising energy costs, raw material costs, labor costs and freight costs – by positioning Orica as a reliable supplier with prices to match.
On Wednesday, he reaffirmed guidance for the 2021-22 financial year, with margin improvement to be driven by volume growth in line with gross domestic product growth, cost reductions and higher prices.
But Gandhi’s supersized capital raising is designed to give him a bit of breathing space.
By raising an extra $282 million for working capital and balance sheet capacity, he will have more financial flexibility to navigate the inflation he is battling with higher input costs; the ongoing supply chain constraints that have necessitated finding new sources of ammonia and ammonium nitrate, sometimes under shorter payment terms; and the geopolitical threats to supply, which have required higher inventory holdings to counter supply risks.
“There’s a lot of stuff going on in the industry that we cannot control, so I am being a bit cautious here. It has nothing to do with the underlying business. The underlying business is very healthy,” Gandhi says.
Execution risk should be relatively low on the Axis deal. Gandhi plans to integrate the business into Orica but preserve Axis’ autonomy, with some of Orica’s existing orebody intelligence businesses to be run by the Axis team, which Gandhi says reflects the size and experience of the acquisition.
The deal was struck on a multiple of 11.8 times earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization; Orica trades on 32 times.
Two iconic Australian brands have joined forces to create a frozen treat that many will be lining up to get their hands on.
Golden Gaytime has teamed up with OAK to create a chocolate twist on the iconic ice cream.
The treat has an OAK-inspired ice cream centre, dipped in a layer of chocolate, and is smothered in Golden Gaytime’s famous delicious biscuit pieces with a choccy twist.
Streets spokeswoman Annie Lucchitti said: “Golden Gaytime has been an Aussie favorite for over 50 years and we’re known for some pretty impressive flavor experiences!
“Golden Gaytime OAK brings the iconic elements of Golden Gaytime together with the unmistakeable OAK Choc Milk flavor hit. It’s creamy, crumbly, choccy – delicious.
“It’s a crowd pleaser that’s for sure. We’re ecstatic to be bringing the next level of Golden goodness to market!”
The release of the new ice cream will be staggered, hitting the shelves exclusively at IGA and Ritchies stores on Thursday, August 4.
In September, Golden Gaytime OAK will be available in Coles, petrol stations and convenience stores.
The ice creams can be purchased in a box of four for $9.50.
It’s the latest collaboration from OAK, after Allen’s beloved Milk Bottles were transformed into OAK-flavoured lollies.
The confectionary company revealed in July the beloved brands were collaborating.
The Milk Bottles come in two OAK-inspired packs and come in two flavours.
One is an Oak-inspired iced coffee – a chocolate and malt blend.
The second is strawberry, with the new Milk Bottles being sold as standalone bags of lollies.
When Finland recently unveiled the world’s first “sand battery”, there was speculation that Australian manufacturers would soon be rolling out their own versions, as they looked to burn less gas.
Key points:
Australia’s first commercial thermal energy storage system will be installed later this year
It will run on renewable electricity and help a pet food factory cut its use of gas, saving money and reducing emissions
Similar systems will be rolled out around the country in coming years, experts say
Now, a pet food factory in Wodonga has announced it’s doing just that.
The Mars Petcare facility, one of the largest pet-food makers in the country, will take delivery of a “graphite battery” later this year, as part of a trial to reduce emissions and ultimately save money.
From the outside, the orange container won’t look like much, but experts say the system’s installation is an important moment in the country’s clean energy transition, and such thermal energy storage (TES) facilities will become a common sight over the next decade.
“It will be the first major commercial application of thermal energy storage to displace gas in Australia, so it’s a big deal,” said Dominic Zaal, director of the Australian Solar Thermal Research Institute (ASTRI), which is funded through the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA).
“It will be the first of many. Within 10 years this will be widespread.”
So, how does it work, and what can it be used for?
Water goes in, steam comes out
Like the Finnish sand battery, the Wodonga TES system purchases renewable electricity from the grid when it’s cheapest and converts this to heat through resistive heating (like an electric bar-heater).
This heat is then stored in the graphite blocks at temperatures of up to 900C.
The modular design can be scaled up. A single container has a capacity of about 3 megawatt-hours of thermal energy, which is equivalent to the amount of electrical energy stored by a large neighborhood chemical battery.
In practice, the battery is designed to be charged and discharged at the same time, which means that over the course of a day it can process up to 8MWh of thermal energy.
When heat is needed, water is run through pipes within the seacrate, and converted to high-pressure steam, at temperatures of 150-250C.
This heat is then used wherever it’s needed. In the case of the Wodonga factory, it will cook pet food.
The Wodonga factory is one of the largest pet food manufacturing sites in Australia.(Supplied: Mars Petcare)
The clean energy system will reduce the factory’s gas consumption by 20 per cent, said Paul Matuschka, its head of sustainability.
The system is scheduled to begin operation early next year, and more batteries may be installed.
“We’ve got a metric to be 100 per cent renewable from direct operations by 2040,” Mr Matuschka said.
The struggle to get off gas
About 16 per cent of Australia’s emissions are due to the burning of gas in industry for processes needing high temperatures (anything above 100C).
Cutting these emissions requires more than installing solar panels and batteries, as electricity on its own can’t generate high enough temperatures.
Heat pumps (the same technology used by reverse cycle air-conditioners), which can be powered by renewables, max out at about 100C.
TES is seen by many as the solution to this problem.
Mars Petcare Wodonga is a case in point: gas accounts for three-quarters of its energy consumption.
“Over 90 per cent of the natural gas usage is used for cooking,” Mr Matuschka said.
Without TES, the factory can’t get off gas, he said.
“We’re looking at thermal energy storage as a critical component to help us achieve getting to 100 per cent net zero from direct operations.”
Other large manufacturers investigating thermal storage
While the Wodonga project has been in the pipeline for more than two years, interest in TES has tracked the recent hike in gas prices.
Wholesale gas prices have more than doubled since last year, and are forecast to stay high in 2023.
The Wodonga TES system is being made by an Australian company, Graphite Energy, based at Lake Cargelligo in Central NSW.
The Australian company 1414 is also developing TES systems, using silicon instead of graphite or sand.(Supplied: 1414)
It’s seen sudden demand in recent months, said CEO Peter Lemmich.
“Now that we’ve seen these increases in price, there’s obviously an enormous amount of interest from people,” he said.
The price increase, he said, has “eliminated the green premium” for TES.
“So going green is no longer a cost impost to the business.”
ASTRI’s Dominic Zaal said he was currently advising some of the largest food and paper manufacturers in the country about TES systems and getting off gas.
“We’ve had interest for a good year or two but in the last three months, since Russia’s excursion into Ukraine… the imperative has been significant.”
“I’ve got at least 10 fairly large firms who are interested in this technology.”
Wodonga trial being watched closely
The time it takes for TES units to pay for themselves through gas savings depended on where a business was getting its electricity, Mr Zaal said.
If they’re buying from the grid, it might take 10 years, but if they’re generating their own it could take as little as five, he said.
“These systems are 30-year systems. Once paid back, it’s pretty much free,” he said.
Mars Petcare had calculated a payback period of 10-12 years, Mr Matushcka said.
Other businesses were closely watching the Wodonga factory trial, Graphite Energy’s Peter Lemmich said.
“Everyone that we speak to knows that this project is going ahead and they’re all sort of kind of sitting back going, let’s have a look at that.
“And if that does what you said it’s going to do, then, you know, we want to talk.”
