There’s still a lot of life left in the AGGAT program, which is why our Industry Development team have recently entered the highly contestable science funding round to seek financial support from the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment (MBIE).

So far, we’ve covered significant ground in building a technology platform to cater to the needs of the heavy engineering sector in geothermal and waste heat. Working strongly with our members in the programme and various organisations and individuals, we’ve championed the case for local manufacturing of Organic Rankine Cycle plants – simultaneously putting NZ on the global technology map for low enthalpy generation development.

Going forward, we hope to again partner with the University of Auckland, and also introduce GNS as potential sub-contractors. Our future proposal continues to support the current Impact Statements (IS) in innovation (IS1) and applications (IS2) with nine key research aims covering technology concepts, heat transfer and design, turbine design and performance, control systems, materials and fluids.

Our members in the AGGAT program have identified this work as an opportunity to move their businesses from an unstable contracting environment to a more stable manufacturing one. This latest funding proposal represents a crucial step for HERA to continue our support in this vision.