Vortex ready to build world-first power plant

HOW IT WORKS: A diagrammatic image shows how the Vortex system works to generate carbon-neutral clean electricity. 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 waterspout generates local high-speed wind, driving a power generation turbine, which in turn produces clean electricity. Diagram supplied

Vortex Power Systems (VPS) expects to begin building its revolutionary electricity generating trial plant at Whangara by the end of May.

The Auckland-based company has developed technology that converts low-grade waste heat into carbon-neutral clean electricity.

It generates and harvests the power of atmospheric vortices — a whirling mass of fluid or air.

Their trial plant will be built on Toby and Amelia Williams’ Pihitia Station at Whangara where the first sod was turned in a ceremony in December last year.

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.

“The physics involved in the development has proven to be correct and with this development at Whangara we will trial the concept in the field,” VPS chief executive Perzaan Mehta said.

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 company had hoped to start construction of the site to house a Vortex system and a research and development facility earlier this year.

“We had hoped to start the building earlier but we were held up by delays in the Civil Aviation consent process, and then the cyclones came along,” Mr Mehta said.

“Now we hope to start work on the site by the end of next month, depending on the timing for our local contractors.

“We are talking to them about the best start time for them.”

Mr Mehta said construction would take three to eight months.

“Then the plant will need to be commissioned and instrumentation installed, so we expect at this stage to be able to start testing by the end of this year or early next.”

Mr Mehta said they needed to get consents in place before they could finalise funding for the project and that had been done.

“The estimated cost of the project is about $3 million.”

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

“It will also create some extra jobs for the region and we hope it might attract tourists because it’s not every day you see a man-made waterspout,” he said.

Pihitia Station was chosen as the perfect site for the trial plant because it’s well away from fly zones for aircraft.

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

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

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

“We take the warm water traditionally sent to cooling towers as part of a manufacturing process and utilise 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 local high-speed wind, driving a power generation turbine, which in turn produces clean electricity.

“Since the wind power in the vortex is manufactured, the power generation is more consistent and not as susceptible to the unpredictable nature of weather compared to a solar plant or conventional wind turbines,” Mr Mehta said.

“Another benefit of the Vortex system is that it is an add-on feature that is retrofittable and connectable to existing infrastructure.”

At the sod-turning ceremony in December Mayor Rehette Stoltz said the trial plant was a great investment and collaboration that would benefit this district.