Welcome to the MGA Thermal Quarterly Update, hot off the block press.
Exciting Updates on Our Demonstration Unit
What’s been happening this last quarter? We’ve been seeing all our hard work coming together and it’s exciting as we approach completion.
Commissioning plans and documentation for the Demonstration unit have been finalised, ensuring the team is ready to finish hot commissioning before the new year. October will bring the loading of MGA Blocks inside the Demonstration unit enclosure.
Before the commissioning commences, the MGA team came together in September to partake in a traditional Smoking Ceremony led by our local Indigenous Worimi Land Council, also known as the Murrock Centre. Justin Ridgeway, a well-known and respected Worimi man, led the event. Justin shared the significance of the ceremony with the team; cleansing the site, plant and people of bad spirit to promote the protection and well-being of people and visitors.
Justin led the smoke and MGA team around the Demonstration Unit, we then had the opportunity to immerse in the smoke and cleanse individually.
It was an impactful event to share as a team, and significant as we embark on recommissioning.
Last quarter, I referred to the industrial decarbonisation drive underway globally and how MGA is ideally positioned to be a market leader. This quarter, I want to share some insights into the scale of the opportunity for MGA in the industrial sector.
In Australia, heavy industries account for a substantial 44% of energy consumption, with half of that used for heat generation. This trend continues globally, where 25% of the world’s energy use and emissions come from industrial heat (IEA). Currently, these industries rely on gas boilers and carbon based fuels to produce high-pressure, high-temperature steam. Hard-to-abate industries such as manufacturing, mining, and minerals processing often run continuously, consuming astaggering 353% more energythan the residential sector.
Many high-temperature larger scale industrial processes cannot be decarbonised with current commercially available technology (IEA). MGA Thermal’s vision is to be a leading technology in decarbonising the industrial sector globally. We are prioritising a focus on industrials with potential for multiple deployments across their global portfolio. MGA has a particular focus on clean steam applications across larger sectors namely minerals processing, oil and gas, chemicals, building products, and food and beverage.
Upcoming Conference
MGA will be at theAll Energy Conference in Melbourne 23-24October.Come and say hello to our team at booth W135!
It was a pleasure to host Main Sequence Ventures and team to our site during August, sharing MGA Thermal's progress and hearing their scale-up insights.
Their ongoing support as a major investor is invaluable to our growth.
We also welcomed CSR Limited to our site, of course showing them around our Demonstration Unit as well as discussing Thermal Energy Storage for industrial decarbonisation, a key to net-zero manufacturing.
In September, our Chief Scientist and Cofounder Erich Kisi and CFO Anna Starrett met with Senator Tim Ayres (Assistant Minister for Trade and Assistant Minister for a Future Made in Australia) and Sharon Claydon at I2N. It was wonderful to update the minister on the work we are doing at MGA Thermal and our goal to make 24/7 renewables a reality.
You may have also spotted Mark Croudace on the Long Duration Energy Storage Panel at the Clean Energy Council’s Australian Clean Energy Summit!
Will Furness, Head of Business Development at MGA Thermal, joined the 2024 HunterNet Future Leaders Program Roundtable Luncheon, sharing his experience turning ideas into commercial successes. Run by HunterNet Co-operative, it was great to join the event and explore the Hunter’s resilience and potential global impact.
We were also excited to be involved in Deep Tech Week 2024 – through Peerless: Main Sequence Portfolio Day. Our CEO Mark Croudace joined the ‘100k per day -Velocity as a Currency’ discussion with other incredible deep tech companies Paul Riley of Samsara Eco, Michele Stansfield of Cauldron Ferm and Sean Simpson of LanzaTech. It was a pleasure to share our journey in navigating the high-stakes environment of cleantech and our mission to make 24/7 renewables a reality.
In the Media
Here are some mentions in the media you might have missed:
The R&D team continually works on the improvement of the MGA blocks. As part of this, the R&D team utilises in-house thermogravimetric analysis and differential scanning calorimetry. These techniques help MGA understand how the block material functions in different temperatures and environments.
Here is Jemma, a Research Assistant, and a project she works on; the MGA Block Calorimeter.
People Update
New team member
MGA is growing and the safety of our team is our highest priority, so we’re excited to announce we’re welcoming Paul Vidler to the team as our new Safety Specialist!
Paul brings over 19 years of diverse safety experience, having worked with companies like Tefol, Martin Bower, and regulatory bodies like WorkCover. He's established over 60 safety systems during his career and is skilled in both Environmental ISO14001 and Quality Assurance ISO9001 standards.
Paul is an exceptional addition to our team, helping to make 24/7 renewables a reality.
Thank you for your continued support and interest in MGA Thermal. We look forward to sharing more updates with you soon, so watch this space, and make sure you’re subscribed to our announcements mailing list!
Renewables in the News
Our top picks for recent renewables news; with an Australian focus.
The IEA's Special Report on Batteries and Secure Energy Transitions highlights the key role batteries will play in fulfilling the recent 2030 commitments made by nearly 200 countries at COP28 to put the global energy system on the path to net zero emissions. These include tripling global renewable energy capacity, doubling the pace of energy efficiency improvements and transitioning away from fossil fuels.
According to Mercom Capital, companies in the energy storage space raised US$15.4 billion in corporate funding globally in the first half of 2024. The research firm’s latest report provides statistics on publicly announced funding and mergers and acquisitions (M&A) transactions including debt and public market financing and venture capital (VC) deals, up to the end of June.
Wind turbines and solar panels have overtaken fossil fuels to generate 30% of the European Union’s electricity in the first half of the year, a report has found. Power generation from burning coal, oil and gas fell 17% in the first six months of 2024 compared with the same period the year before, according to climate thinktank Ember. It found the continued shift away from polluting fuels has led to a one-third drop in the sector’s emissions since the first half of 2022.
Long duration storage technologies will play a key role in maintaining the security and reliability of Australia’s energy system as more renewables are brought online and as coal generation retires, a new report by the Clean Energy Council (CEC) has found.
.png?upscale=true&width=1200&upscale=true&name=MGA%20logo%20resized%20(3).png)
