A unique energy storage system created in an engineering workshop at the University of Newcastle has raised $8 million in investment to expand its manufacturing and export capacity.
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Materials scientist Professor Erich Kisi and his team spent eight years developing and refining the method of blending metals such as zinc and non-metals such as carbon into a modular form capable of storing energy when heated.
The 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 shoebox-sized blocks are capable of receiving energy generated by renewables, storing it cheaply and safely as thermal energy, then using it to run steam turbines at thermal power stations instead of burning coal.
MGA Thermal, an independent company, has relocated from the university to a facility owned by Molycop at Mayfield West.
The original project team has grown from four to 10 members and it will soon double again as production ramps up.
The investment funding was led by Main Sequence, Australia's deep tech investment fund founded by CSIRO, with participation from new investors Alberts Impact Capital, New Zealand's Climate Venture Capital Fund, The Melt and a select group of leading angel investors including Chris Sang, Emlyn Scott and Glenn Butcher.
"Our mission is to help accelerate the shift to renewable energy by providing a new way to store energy that's clean, economical, and scalable," Professor Kisi, who is MGA Thermal's chief executive, said.
"We are gratified by our investors' recognition of our achievements and their confidence in our ability to execute on this exciting new phase of growth."
The MGA blocks, which can be stacked like building blocks or bricks, are able to store millions of kilowatt hours of energy, in a cheaper, safer and longer-lasting way compared to other dispatchable solutions.
A stack of 1000 blocks - about the size of a small car - is enough energy stored to power 27 homes for 24 hours.
MGA Thermal is currently producing 1000 blocks a month. This figure is scheduled to increase to 1000 blocks a day in the next nine months and hundreds of thousands of blocks in the next couple of years.
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The company is working with a Swiss renewable energy company that plans to use the blocks to retro-fit a recently closed German coal-fired power plant.
"We believe that thermal storage will play an important role in the energy transition, and are overwhelmed with international and domestic interest to date. The potential opportunities and use cases for our technology are extensive," Professor Kisi said.
"Whether it's retrofitting our thermal power stations, providing power to remote communities, supplying heat to industry, heating houses and commercial spaces, or heating for electric vehicles, this can all be powered using renewable energy stored in our MGA blocks."
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Martin Duursma, partner at Main Sequence said bringing together state-of-the-art technology and private investment gives MGA Thermal an opportunity to make an impact on a large scale.
"A core focus of our new fund is uncovering the scientific discoveries, and helping to turn them into real, tangible technologies so we can reverse our climate impact.
Erich Kisi and Alexander Post's impressive deep research backgrounds, their expert team and innovative technology are paving the way for grid-scale energy storage and boosting the capability of a renewable energy future globally," Duursma said.
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