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MUERI (Murdoch University's Energy Research Institute), already recognised as Australia's leading renewable energy research organisation, gets a new challenge -- and a new image -- to celebrate its tenth anniversary this year.
 The Institute has been restructured to make Murdoch's energy research expertise more accessible to industry and the public -- in effect becoming a convenient, one-stop shop for the University's world-class research capabilities.
Murdoch's energy researchers will become Associates of MUERI and a reconstituted Institute Board will co-ordinate and integrate energy research on the campus.
Already widely recognised and used for consultancies and testing services, the 'new' MUERI will heighten its profile and market its accessibility to the corporate and government sectors, while remaining a ready source of advice and information for members of the public interested in renewable energy.
Although the Institute was established in 1987, Murdoch researchers have been involved in renewable energy research, particularly solar power and new-generation storage battery technology, since the University's foundation in 1975.
New structure
Under its new structure and charter, and headed by Institute Board Chair Associate Professor Philip Jennings, and Director Dr Trevor Pryor, MUERI co-ordinates the activities of a strong team of specialists in such areas as
- energy policy, management and economics;
- amorphous silicon solar cell devices;
- battery and fuel cell research;
- assessment, monitoring and testing of renewable energy systems (including wind power generation and biomass processes);
- transport energy policy;
- energy and the environment (including climate change and sustainable development), and
- natural gas and coal research.
Its capabilities in new energy technology research, education and information contribute to and complement the work of the Australian Co-operative Research Centre for Renewable Energy (acrcre/acrcre.html">ACRE) hosted by Murdoch.
Despite MUERI's pre-eminence in Australia's renewable energy field and the international recognition it has attracted over the last decade, the Institute could be regarded as a latter-day phoenix.
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 After the energy crisis of 1974, Australia committed large sums to fund research and development programmes in renewable energy. But as memories of the oil shortages faded, governments in the mid-1980s cut back their R&D support.
The Solar Energy Research Institute of Western Australia (SERIWA) was one Government-funded body to feel the impact.
To preserve the research experience that had made Western Australia a leader in the renewable energy field Murdoch researchers who had collaborated with SERIWA, led by Professor Jennings, urged the formation of a self-funding energy research institute and MUERI was formally established in 1987.
Apart from its high-tech research, the Institute's researchers have initiated or assisted in the development of appropriate technologies for remote communities, both in Australia and overseas.
Their earliest success was the development of solar power supply units and solar-powered water pumping equipment.
Over the past few years these and other renewable energy devices have been adapted or refined by collaboration between MUERI researchers and colleagues in Murdoch's Remote Areas Development Group (RADG).
Apart from their research commitments, MUERI staff also are heavily involved in teaching energy studies. Murdoch offers energy studies at the undergraduate (bachelor degree) level, and in various postgraduates programmes.
Murdoch University plans to build a new energy building on its campus Enterprise Park to house MUERI and the Australian CRC for Renewable Energy (ACRE).
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