The Newcastle makers of ground-breaking printed solar technology say they have knocked back takeover offers from the US and India which would have moved manufacturing overseas.
Kardinia Energy chief executive Anthony Letmon told a business lunch in Newcastle last week that Australia was lagging behind the rest of the world in clean energy investment.
"I think there needs to be a proactive appetite for new technologies. That's nothing new. That's nothing Australia isn't aware of," he told the Newcastle Herald.
"But there needs to be a more proactive appetite relative to lots of other countries around the world who are desperately looking for new types of energy."
Kardinia is seeking to commercialise the printed solar technology developed over the past 30 years by University of Newcastle professor Paul Dastoor.
Professor Dastoor's team has installed the organic, lightweight solar cells on the roof of a Beresfield logistics company and at a demonstration site in Lane Cove.
But Mr Letmon said Australia risked losing the commercial benefits of locally invented technology.
"As we know Australia is the ninth best country in the world for creating intellectual property, but we're the 40th best in the world for commercialising that technology into new business opportunities," he said.
"While we're talking about an energy transition locally, other countries are years in advance, so the talent scouts are already here from the USA, from Malaysia, China and India, looking to acquire this incredible technology that our universities make.
"Kardinia has turned down investment opportunities from several countries, of course carrying the proviso to take the technology offshore and to grow there.
"We have a duty of care to the region to ensure the technology stays here and we can grow jobs here and grow the technology here."
He said Kardinia had been invited to India and the US, which last year adopted the $500 billion Inflation Reduction Act to fund clean energy and lower health care costs.
"It's hard when you're being invited to the US to talk to people within the Inflation Reduction Act, and we've been invited to India, and the pull is considerable compared to what we're seeing locally," he said.
Speakers at last week's Hunter Business and Business Council of Australia lunch, including BCA boss Jennifer Westacott, called on the government to use its $15 billion National Reconstruction Fund to help companies like Kardinia.
Mr Letmon said the fund was "great, but when does it happen".
"Is that another year along? There's an urgency attached to these strategic deliberations."
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