MGA Thermal’s pilot project awarded $560,000 backing from Shell

Thermal energy storage company MGA Thermal has been awarded backing worth approximately $560,000 through Shell’s accelerator program, which the startup says will step up completion of a pilot project.

MGA’s pilot is located at its factory in Tomago, NSW, has a budget of $3 million, and aims to gather data on “and provide a tangible demonstration of the technology for prospective industrial and power customers.” The data concerns charging and discharging behaviour, fluid dynamics and temperature distributions in a system using MGA’s bricks (pictured.)

The company is commercialising a “miscibility gap alloy” approach to thermal energy storage developed by a team at University of Newcastle, storing and dispatching heat to generate electricity.

Matt McDonald from Shell GameChanger said in a statement on Monday that MGA was picked from dozens of applicants after a call was put out for long-duration energy storage solutions.

The funding is worth $US400,000 for the project, which was previously received $1.27 million from the federal government’s Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), announced in October last year. The pilot is expected to come online this year.

“We are very pleased to have Shell’s recognition and support for the MGA Thermal technology and pilot,” said Mark Croudace, CCO of MGA Thermal.

“Our technology is attractive for those looking to decarbonise, with a high potential impact in the medium to long-duration energy storage sector.”

Picture: one of the company’s heat storage bricks (credit MGA Thermal)

Further reading

@AUMANUFACTURING CONVERSATIONS EPISODE 13 — ARDEN JARRETT FROM MGA THERMAL

MGA THERMAL AWARDED $1.27 MILLION BY ARENA TO BUILD DEMONSTRATOR FACILITY

MGA THERMAL UNVEILS NEW NEWCASTLE MANUFACTURING FACILITY

MGA THERMAL SCALES UP FOR THERMAL ENERGY STORAGE