We were thrilled to win the Innovation Aus Translation Hero Award 2022 for Excellence for our use of research to revolutionise renewable energy systems. The Translation Hero category celebrated commercialisation success stories, shining a spotlight on Australian companies or individuals who have shown excellence in taking intellectual property from deep tech research and successfully bringing it into the commercial realm. Presented by Elanor Huntington, the award was accepted by Arden Jarrett and Mark Croudace on behalf of the MGA Thermal team. Thanks to InnovationAus.com for the recognition and University of Newcastle for the support throughout our commercialisation journey. Read more about it here.

MGA Thermal is pleased to share that Australian electricity giant, AGL Energy Limited (AGL), who operate Australia’s largest electricity generation portfolio, is progressing with a feasibility study of MGA technology to be applied to the 200 MW Torrens Island B power station in South Australia, supported by the Australian Renewable Energy Agency. AGL will be assessing the feasibility of repurposing existing electricity infrastructure at sites like Torrens Island, to be powered by renewable sources and backed by flexible energy storage technologies. The $1 million feasibility study will investigate options to use grid electricity to charge the thermal energy storage and discharge through one of the power station’s existing 200 MW steam turbines, which ordinarily runs on gas, when electricity is required on the grid.AGL’s feasibility study will be conducted over approximately 12 months, with MGA Thermal and one other shortlisted technology, with a view to establish the technical and commercial feasibility of the chosen preferred solution.The Australian Energy Market Operator in its 2022 Integrated System Plan indicated the National Electricity Market (NEM) will need more than 60 GW of dispatchable generation and storage by 2050 to support the uptake of renewable energy.The most pressing utility-scale need in the next decade is for medium-duration (4 to 12 hours) storage to manage daily variations in solar and wind output to meet customer demand as coal power stations are shut down.Findings from the feasibility study are expected to be replicable and scalable with other thermal generators across the NEM, with technology providers being able to benefit from the information.ARENA CEO Darren Miller said the study will explore the role thermal energy storage can take in allowing higher levels of renewable energy production across the NEM by repurposing existing power stations and energy infrastructure.“AGL’s study comes at an important time when we need to look at all options for renewable energy storage. As thermal power stations close, there could be an opportunity to retrofit these sites as we head towards net zero emissions,” Mr Miller said.Read the full ARENA announcement here.

MGA Thermal attended All Energy in October 2022 in Melbourne. It was MGA Thermal’s third and largest exhibition in 2022, we are looking forward to even more exhibitions and conferences in 2023. All Energy was attended by over 15,000 people and 300 exhibitors from all over Australia and the world. If you’d like to learn more about All Energy, find it here. From the MGA Thermal team, the conference was attended by Mark Croudace our CCO, and Arden Jarrett our Business Development Officer.‍

We are thrilled to share we have been awarded funding of $1.27 million from the Federal Government’s Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) to launch our MGA Thermal Energy Storage demonstration unit.It was announced on 10 August 2022 by the Hon Chris Bowen MP, Australian Federal Energy Minister and Ms Meryl Swanson MP, Member for Paterson, at our Head Office and Manufacturing site in Tomago, NSW. The $1.27 million funding will help launch the creation and installation of a 5 MegaWatt hour (MWh) storage prototype to demonstrate the generation of steam from stored thermal energy. Showcasing charging and discharging at up to 500 KiloWatts (kW), the demonstration unit will be located at the company’s facility in Tomago. With an expected budget of $2.85 million, the pilot unit will produce valuable performance data and provide a tangible demonstration of the technology for prospective customers. “The latest round of funding underscores the critical role that MGA Thermal blocks will play in the nation’s energy transition. Solutions like ours make it possible to retrofit existing thermal power plants with renewable storage technology” says Erich Kisi, co-founder and CEO of MGA Thermal. “If the current industry sentiment and the impacts of climate change are telling us anything, it’s that we can no longer hold off on the renewable energy transition. While conventional storage technologies like batteries play an important role, a complementary, grid-scale dispatchable energy solution is required to power a seamless transition to renewables nationally,” adds Kisi.Darren Miller, CEO of ARENA explains, “MGA Thermal’s unique technology has enormous potential to support the uptake of renewable energy. The novel approach could make a real difference in the mid-to-long-term storage category, supporting hydrogen and pumped hydro. With potential developments for industrial heating and uses, MGA thermal will play a crucial role in decarbonising the electricity grid and heavy industry.”With current customer interest of 20 GWh, the equivalent of powering 1.3 million homes, MGA Thermal’s solution can repurpose coal-fired and power plants with thermal storage to deliver clean baseload power, while also helping to prevent job loss from power plant closures.

A collaboration between Toshiba, MGA Thermal and Graphite Energy has been awarded a Modern Manufacturing Initiative (MMI) grant for $9.8 million towards a $19.6 million project to accelerate economical green hydrogen production.The collaboration will combine advanced electrolysis and thermal energy storage for the production of super low-cost hydrogen fuel in NSW. The TOSHIBA Solid Oxide Electrolysis Cell is a high-efficiency, advanced method of electrolysis which, when integrated with MGA Thermal and Graphite Energy storage will allow for high-capacity continuous (24/7) production of hydrogen from renewable energy.Erich Kisi, CEO of MGA Thermal said, “We are very excited to announce this new application of MGA Thermal technology, which will be a key driver of the production of economical Hydrogen.”The Modern Manufacturing Initiative (MMI) is a $1.3 billion federal government initiative in key manufacturing priority areas. It aims to transform manufacturing businesses and help them scale-up, translate ideas into commercial successes and integrate into local and international value chains. The MMI Collaboration Stream provides funding to support very large projects in business-to-business and business-to-research collaboration, to build economies of scale. Toshiba Energy Systems & Solutions Corporation are a leading supplier of integrated energy solutions and Global Original Equipment Manufacturer based in Japan. Toshiba are contributing to achieving carbon neutral sustainability goals through their long experience and expertise in a wide range of power generating and transmitting systems and energy management technology. Graphite Energy is an Australian based leader in the integration of graphite based Thermal Energy Storage for process heat, renewable energy storage and green fuels.With MGA’s novel thermal energy storage material, this makes an ideal consortium to produce green hydrogen more efficiently and cheaply than ever before.

We are thrilled to announce we reached a milestone with customer interest for 20 GigaWatt hours (GWh) of energy storage, the equivalent of powering 1.3 million homes, from customers for its breakthrough technology.The milestone is being celebrated by unveiling the first stage of our new commercial manufacturing facility in Newcastle, Australia to meet that demand amid growing and urgent need for new energy storage to replace aging or increasingly expensive thermal and other conventional power stations. The new equipment is in the processed of being commissioned and will be capable of manufacturing more than 1,000 blocks, or 1MWh of energy storage, per day by the end of 2022.The initial run of blocks will be used to kick off our partnership with the Toshiba International Corporation and Graphite Energy to produce low-cost green hydrogen thanks to a $9.8 million grant from the Australian Government’s Modern Manufacturing Initiative.“If current market sentiment and the impacts of climate change are telling us anything, it’s that we can no longer hold off on the renewable energy transition. While conventional storage technologies like batteries are no doubt important to that mission, we believe our MGA Thermal Blocks will be a major part of that transition, to retrofit existing thermal power plants and support development of low-cost renewable energy storage and green hydrogen,” said Erich Kisi, co-founder and CEO of MGA Thermal. “Utilities around the world have told us they need this type of technology to make that move, and we are well on our way to building the capacity to meet that demand.”MGA Thermal is working closely with global organisations like Toshiba International Corporation to demonstrate its potential for a wide variety of use cases like generation of low-cost green hydrogen.QUOTE FROM TOSHIBAToshiba International Corporation is very excited to be collaborating with MGA Thermal to develop innovative solutions that move our society towards a sustainable and carbon neutral future. Our partnership with MGA aims to deliver long term energy storage, low-cost Hydrogen production and renewable electricity generation, all highly valued features of a successful future energy market.The coupling of the MGA thermal storage technology with the Toshiba’s Solid Oxide Electrolysis Hydrogen technology will allow both parties to work with government and industry to develop a joint engineering and manufacturing strategy so that high value engineering, manufacturing and supply chain jobs are created locally with the value generated exported globally in the future.