Newcastle-based clean energy company MGA Thermal has received a $1.27 million federal government grant to help demonstrate its innovative thermal energy storage technology.
The company's breakthrough technology, known as Miscibility Gaps Alloy blocks, will help accelerate the shift to renewable energy by providing clean, economic, and scalable storage of energy.
The MGA blocks can store heat for periods ranging from hours to days with minimal loss of energy.
Heat exchangers use a transfer gas to absorb heat from the MGA blocks, with the heated gas or fluid suitable for industrial heat applications or to drive a steam turbine to generate electricity.
The $2.85 million demonstrator project will see the construction of a pilot unit to showcase steam generation from stored thermal energy with the capacity to provide a new form of medium-term energy storage.
As Australia ramps up its reliance on renewable generation such as wind and solar, a major increase in energy storage will be needed to support renewables that will deliver the cheapest energy for Australian businesses and households.
The demonstration project has a planned storage capacity of 5 megawatt hours and will demonstrate charging and discharging of up to 500 kilowatts.
The pilot unit will produce valuable performance data and provide a tangible demonstration of the technology for prospective customers.
Data gathered will cover the charging and discharging behaviour, fluid dynamics and temperature distributions, and validate the efficacy of mid-to-long term thermal storage in a practical system.
Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen, will visit MGA Thermal's new manufacturing site at Tomago on Wednesday.
"MGA Thermal is a wonderful example of Australian know-how leading the way in the rapidly expanding renewables sector," he said.
"The company's unique technology has the potential to make major advances in medium-term storage that are vital for decarbonising industrial energy use and electricity generation in Australia and the world."
Member for Paterson Meryl Swanson, said the trail-blazing project would stimulate the local economy and create employment.
"This project will have many positive knock-on effects for the region, including delivering 22 high-skill full-time jobs," she said.
Australian Renewabale Energy Agency chief executive Darren Miller said MGA Thermal's unique technology had enormous potential to support the uptake of renewable energy.
"Electricity transition is going to require storage technologies that are able to discharge over a range of time frames," Mr Miller said.
"MGA Thermal's novel approach could make a real difference in the medium and longer term storage category, supporting hydrogen and pumped hydro.
MGA Thermal was spun out of the University of Newcastle with three employees in 2019. Today it employs 25 people, with that number expected to grow to 50 by the end of next year.
"ARENA is proud to be supporting an Australian innovation success story, helping bring a research breakthrough closer to a commercially viable product." Mr Miller said.
The Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) in their 2022 Integrated System Plan indicated the National Electricity Market will need more than 60 gigawatts of dispatchable generation and storage by 2050 to support the uptake of renewable energy. Firming and developing Australia's energy storage technology and solutions is critical to the successful execution of this dispatchable generation plan.
