MGA Thermal delivers 24/7 renewable industrial-grade steam

MGA Thermal’s commercial Electro-Thermal Energy Storage (ETES) system — capable of dispatching industrial-grade steam from renewable energy — has now gone live.

The ETES technology is said to outperform conventional sensible heat thermal storage, offering a viable pathway to 24/7 renewable heat for industries, effectively replacing reliance on carbon-intensive fossil fuels.

The fully operational demonstration plant has produced steam output while the storage material undergoes a material phase change to release latent heat.

The company’s use of latent heat means that energy is stored more compactly, both in physical plant footprint and storage temperature range. This serves to make latent heat ETES more space efficient, reliable, energy efficient and affordable than sensible heat storage. The system can also simultaneously charge and discharge energy, allowing industrial plants to maintain uninterrupted steam production while concurrently storing additional renewable energy, providing energy management flexibility.

“The successful operation of this world-first system is a game-changer, proving that consistent, industrial-grade clean steam is not a future aspiration, but a reality today,” said Erich Kisi, Executive Chair, Chief Scientist and co-founder at MGA Thermal.

“Our unique ETES solution efficiently captures and stores surplus renewable energy in a specially designed material, releasing it as high-temperature steam on demand. Our systems react in milliseconds, seamlessly absorbing and deploying energy and therefore at a large scale can participate in grid and energy market stabilisation. This marks a pivotal moment in the journey to decarbonise industries with high and continuous heat requirements.”

Located at MGA Thermal’s Tomago site, the compact demonstration unit (12 m long, 3 m wide, 4 m tall) stores 5 MWh of energy with a 500 kW thermal dispatch power, providing continuous superheated steam for a full 24 hours — enough energy to power over 270 homes for the same duration. At its core are approximately 3700 of the company’s proprietary Miscibility Gap Alloy (MGA) blocks, specifically engineered for optimal latent heat storage.

“Our now-operational demonstration plant isn’t just a concept — it’s a commercially viable solution ready for deployment,” said Mark Croudace, CEO at MGA Thermal. “As we gear up for full-scale commercialisation, our focus is on partnering with forward-thinking industries, both locally and globally, eager to embrace a sustainable future. The potential for significant emissions reduction is immense, and we are on track to abate 30 million tonnes of CO₂ by 2030.

“This is the missing piece of the puzzle for heavy industry decarbonisation. We’ve cracked the challenge of delivering continuous steam from intermittent renewable sources, making it both technically and commercially compelling.”

Image caption: CEO Mark Croudace and Chief Scientist Erich Kisi at MGA Thermal.