A new open source planning tool hopes to create what researchers from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) are calling the 'global energy turnaround'. In order to understand existing infrastructure, the team have developed the OpenGridMap app, which they hope will answer questions such as: How much electricity flows through the grid?; When and where?; Where are the bottlenecks?; and, What happens when wind turbines and solar cells feed in additional energy? [ + ]

The Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) and the Textile Clothing and Footware Union of Australia (TCFUA) are one step closer to amalgamation, having signed an amalgamation memorandum of understanding. The two unions have been increasingly collaborating over the last 12 months. [ + ]

The business formerly known as Emerson Network Power has announced a name change and the appointment of a new CEO after acquisition by Platinum Equity. Emerson retained a minority interest in the company under the new arrangement. [ + ]

The announcement from Western Australia's Barnett government of plans to sell 51% of the state's power utility if re-elected has caused concern.  [ + ]

Market research company Euromonitor International thinks there is a big future in the connected appliances market, with a new report projecting a growth rate of over 493% from 2016 to 2020. [ + ]

Hills has announced it will partner with UTC Fire & Security (UTC) to introduce a range of fire detection products into the Australian and New Zealand markets. [ + ]

Last week, the Fair Work Commission handed down its findings from negotiations between publicly owned Essential Energy and the unions representing the majority of workers employed by the company. The negotiations aimed to settle on a revised enterprise agreement and have been in play since June 2015, when the previous agreement expired. Among the points of contention in discussion were provisions for redundancy and outsourcing. [ + ]

The National Transport Commission (NTC) has released the discussion paper 'National guidelines for automated vehicle trials', calling for input into the key elements needed to support the endeavour. [ + ]

Toyota Motor Corporation has issued a safety recall for certain vehicles in its Hiace range. The affected models include: KDH201, KDH221, KDH223, TRH201, TRH221 and TRH223. [ + ]

Australia's solar heliostat technology will be used for concentrating solar thermal (CST) electricity generation in China. CSIRO has partnered with Chinese company Thermal Focus, following China's announcement to produce 1.4 GW of CST by 2018 and 5 GW by 2020. This would double the world's installed CST plants. [ + ]

As part of National Asbestos Awareness month (which ends today) tradies are invited to remain vigilant when working on projects which may contain asbestos materials. To help identify potential hazards, you can download the 'Residential checklist for tradies — a tradesperson's guide to asbestos-containing materials in domestic properties' PDF file from the Asbestos Awareness website. [ + ]

After more than two years of development, the international standard for Automated Infrastructure Management (ISO/IEC 18598 Information technology — Automated infrastructure management (AIM) systems — Requirements, data exchange and applications) has been officially published. [ + ]

CSIRO has been beavering away on new wearable technology that it hopes will improve the delivery of expert services to remote field workers, particularly in the mining industry. [ + ]

Automated vehicles (AVs) have the potential to change the landscape across a number of industry sectors. [ + ]

Hamish McGovern, managing director of Wattyl, has been nominated for the role of president of the Energy Efficiency Certificate Creators Association (EECCA) at the AGM held in Sydney. [ + ]