MGA Thermal Hunter

Net Zero case study MGA Thermal

Transcript

00:00My name is Alex Post, I'm the Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer here at MGA Thermal.

00:11So I started my career in research at the University of Newcastle when we first invented

00:16our technology, since then I've worked at the CSIRO and eventually moved into forming

00:21our own company here where we're scaling up our technology.

00:24MGA Thermal is an Australian manufacturing company which makes a clean energy product

00:29which helps industry decarbonise and reduce their emissions.

00:33We manufacture our bespoke material here in the Hunter and we export that all over the

00:37world to solve emissions and climate change.

00:41My name is Annie Lacan, I'm the Head of Engineering at MGA Thermal.

00:46MGA Thermal solves the access to clean steam 24-7 through thermal storage.

00:53The food industry for example is a huge user of steam, their steam is mainly produced from

00:58fossil fuels.

00:59Our product solves the huge problems facing industry in efforts to decarbonise and that

01:04means the ability to store and dispatch renewable energy on demand to replace fossil fuels.

01:09This is an MGA block which is our purpose engineered material designed to store large

01:14amounts of heat.

01:16The idea there is that we heat our blocks up using electricity which comes from excess

01:21renewables, we store that heat in our blocks very very effectively and then we dispatch

01:26that heat when industry needs it for steam.

01:29MGA Thermal means a lot to me having seen this research come all the way from the lab

01:33into the real world.

01:35So this really is a chance for us to make a material difference in the world's effort

01:39to decarbonise.

01:40We've chosen the Hunter region for our business for quite a few features.

01:44First of all it's the beating heart of Australia's energy network.

01:47A lot of our coal fired fleet is based here in the Hunter as well as all of the transmission

01:51infrastructure that distributes that.

01:53We also have a huge background in energy from a trades and skills perspective which

01:57MGA can leverage for our own use.

01:59Hunter region is a high skilled region.

02:02We've been producing energy, mining for years.

02:06What MGA Thermal wants to tap in is that skilled talent that's already in the region and offer

02:11opportunities for these people.

02:13MGA Thermal has a rapid growth plan to meet the demands set by decarbonisation.

02:19Our next stage is a 20 times increase in our manufacturing capacity here in Newcastle

02:24which allows us to produce gigawatt hour scale storage for our customers.

02:28The federal government's provided us with $3.75 million through ARENA to perform our

02:33pilot to scale up our technology and to connect with stakeholders to see how it's used and

02:38how we can make 24-7 renewable energy a reality.