“Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” Those words were said by President John F Kennedy at his inauguration in 1961, and were designed to galvanize a nation to action through personal responsibility. After four years of effort and support by a lot of different people…
As part of the AGGAT program, the Heavy Engineering Education and Research Foundation (HEERF) offers scholarships to prospective university students undertaking postgraduate research related to the Heavy Engineering Sector. The AGGAT Program offers such opportunities through its research objectives in Clean Energy. This has often been a pathway of growth for our scholars into our…
The World Geothermal Congress (WGC) was held in Melbourne at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre from 19th – 24th April 2015. The event was co-hosted by New Zealand, where a number of short courses and field trips to geothermal plants also took place post-conference. Over 1,600 delegates from over 80 countries attended the conference…
An AGGAT program associate has developed some interesting intellectual property in relation to a process to mitigate silica fouling in geothermal plants. They have run the technology at lab scale and now want to proceed to field trials and ultimately a pilot plant. They feel they could benefit by partnering with a fabricator with a…
After a major refurbishment, HERA House was officially re-opened on 20 March by the Minster of Science and Innovation Hon Steven Joyce. He is also Minister for Economic Development, Minister for Regulatory Reform, Minister of Science and Innovation, Minister for Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment, Minister Responsible for Novopay and Associate Minister of Finance; not…
Following on from the presentation of project plans at the AGGAT team meeting in January (see last HERA News), the research leaders will be re-convening at an upcoming Technical Advisory Board meeting in early March to present proposals and establish the next steps for their projects. In summary form, they are described below: Mar272015 Technology…
Speakers are confirmed Ennio Macchi, Professor at Italy’s top engineering institution Politecnico di Milano Zhiqiang Guan, Senior research fellow with Queensland Geothermal Energy Centre of Excellence (QGECE) Nick Inskip, HERA General Manager Industry Development Boaz Habib, HERA Senior Research Engineer Mohammed Farid, Professor at University of Auckland Lei Chen, HERA Research Engineer Sadiq Zarrouk, Senior Lecturer at University of Auckland Holger…
Strattera, New Zealand’s voice of the minerals industry, keeps careful tabs on what’s happening globally in the industry, including reference to Deloitte’s “Tracking the Trends 2015” that identifies the top ten issues mining companies will face this year, some of which provide some useful insights for the New Zealand metals industry. One of these insights…
For the first time in New Zealand, the Above Ground Geothermal and Allied Technologies (AGGAT) program will be presented on an international scale. The date and venue for this conference will be on the 30th April at the Sky City Convention Centre in Auckland. The Conference focuses on above ground geothermal engineering, with an emphasis…
Simon Bridges, MP for Tauranga and Minster for Energy and Resources, recently visited HERA member company BOP Gear Cutters Ltd at their Mt Maunganui operation where he toured the 650m2 purpose-built facility with Managing Director Bill Ross. A highlight of the tour was an opportunity to see a large wind turbine gear being worked on.…
Following the successful contract renewal of the Above Ground Geothermal and Allied Technologies (AGGAT) programme with the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE), the AGGAT Team research leaders kicked off the new year with a meeting to discuss project plans. The additional members in the group are primarily from the University of Auckland and…
According to Matt Roberts, Executive Director of the Energy Storage Association in the USA, “markets are born at the intersection of policy, technology and opportunity.” This is a simple but fairly profound statement and highlights what should be obvious, which is that policy, technology and opportunity working together make things happen. It’s a bit like…