Powering up on the farm

Vortex Power Systems staff joined locals in December for the official blessing of the site on Pihitia Station at Whangara, where the company’s alternative electricity generation system will be built. Picture by Liam Clayton

by Murray Robertson

Vortex Power Systems (VPS) is pressing ahead with its project to develop a world-leading alternative electricity generation system.

Construction on the Whangara test site will start once ground conditions dry out.

The Auckland-based VPS company’s technology converts low-grade waste heat into carbon-neutral clean electricity, by generating and harvesting the power of atmospheric vortices — a whirling mass of fluid or air.

The trial plant is to be built on Pihitia Station, Toby and Amelia Williams’ property at Whangara.

“We are proceeding on the site and we have told our contractors to start doing what they can on the site, given the wet ground conditions,” Vortex chief executive Perzaan Mehta said.

“As soon as it dries out enough the earthworks will begin in earnest.”

Mr Mehta said the company aimed to have construction completed by the end of this year to  early next year.

“There’ve been no changes in the nature of the project.

“The weather delays mean this is not an ideal situation but these things are to be expected.

“We shouldn’t be too far behind our schedule.”

“There are still things we can do in the interim. The construction of the pre-fabricated buildings and materials to go on the site is under way as we speak.”

Mr Mehta said the weather system changes from La Nina to El Nino would mean drier weather, according to MetService.

“That will help us and I’m sure everyone in Tairāwhiti is hoping for the same.”

The $3 million project involves a  revolutionary electricity generating trial plant at Whangara.

The Vortex system has been in development since 2017 and the concept has been proved using a testing rig at the University of Auckland’s aerodynamics lab.

When operational, the trial plant will produce a waterspout-like plume of water vapour that can rise up to five kilometres into the sky.

The plant will be the company’s first full-scale pilot plant capable of generating power — the world’s first fully operational unit.

Pihitia Station is seen as the perfect site for the trial plant because it is well away from fly zones for aircraft.

“The higher the plume, the greater the amount of electricity the plant can generate,” Mr Mehta said.

The Vortex concept captures low-quality waste heat emitted from thermal processes in many large-scale manufacturing plants such as steelworks, dairy factories and paper mills.

The Whangara trial plant will use a diesel generator to provide the heat for the test programme.

They take the warm water traditionally sent to cooling towers as part of a manufacturing process and use the otherwise wasted low-grade heat to create the right conditions for the formation of a naturally occurring waterspout (vortex) above the manufacturing plant.

The waterspout generates high-speed wind, driving a power generation turbine, which in turn produces clean electricity.

“We are pushing on with the project,” Mr Mehta said. “And we’re excited to get going.”

See also: https://www.gisborneherald.co.nz/news/vortex-ready-to-build-world-first-power-plant