Test site for alternative electricity generation on track

The Vortex Power Systems test site on Pihitia Station at Whangara has been progressing well and the Auckland-based company expects to have the site ready for testing by February-March. The image shows what the test plant will look like once completed. File picture

Auckland-based Vortex Power Systems (VPS) has made good progress on the construction of a test site for its world-leading technology on the East Coast, Vortex chief executive Perzaan Mehta reported yesterday.

The company will further develop an alternative electricity generation system on Toby and Amelia Williams’ Pihitia Station at Whangara.

The VPS 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.

“Construction of our test site is well under way,” Mr Mehta said.

“The foundation work for the buildings is progressing after some delays caused by wet ground conditions.

“Foundations have been laid for the boiler pad, the hot water pool, the Vortex station and the pump station.”

Mr Mehta said the construction of the pre-fabricated buildings, being done off site in Gisborne, was reasonably advanced.

“At this stage we are on track to complete the facilities at Pihitia Station early in the New Year.

“After the plant is commissioned we anticipate being able to start testing the Vortex system sometime in the February-March period.”

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

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 and 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 aircraft fly zones.

“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.