Shell invests A$560,000 in MGA Thermal

Australian energy storage company MGA Thermal has received A$560,000 in funding from global energy provider Shell after winning a “call for solutions” that sought to identify viable systems for long-duration storage.

The funding will be used to accelerate the completion of the MGA Thermal Energy Storage pilot. Located at MGA Thermal’s commercial manufacturing facility in Newcastle, Australia, the pilot aims to “gather valuable data amid the growing and urgent need for new longer-duration energy storage (LDES) solutions”, a statement said.

The pilot has a planned storage capacity of 5 MWh, with charging and discharging at up to 500 kW for 10 hours. The pilot unit, approximately 12 metres long and 3 metres wide, will provide a demonstration of the technology for prospective industrial and power customers.

Data gathered will cover the charging and discharging behaviour, fluid dynamics and temperature distributions, and “validate the efficacy of mid-to-long-term thermal storage in a practical system”, the statement added.