Clean-tech company MGA Thermal has started a front-end engineering and design (FEED) study for Australia’s largest industrial-scale thermal storage project to date.
The study will pave the way for a 195 megawatt-hour (MWh) electro-thermal energy storage (ETES) plant at chemical and mining giant Tronox’s pigment facility in Kwinana, south of Perth.
The project is being developed by infrastructure developer Knode and backed by a AU$2.9 million funding agreement from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA).
Construction is slated to begin in 2027 with the assistance of global engineering firm GHD, targeting commercial operations by 2028.
Once operational, the system will supply roughly 20 tonnes of renewable steam per hour to Tronox under a Heat as a Service agreement, eliminating an estimated 38,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions annually.
The innovative ETES technology relies on MGA Thermal’s proprietary, energy-dense MGA Blocks. These modular bricks store cheap, off-peak renewable electricity as latent heat, which can then be recovered on demand to generate high-grade process steam. This enables heavy industrial plants to operate continuously without relying on fossil fuel backups.
MGA Thermal CEO Mark Croudace said: “Commencing the FEED study is a significant step — it’s where engineering challenges are resolved, and the pathway to FID and construction becomes real.
“This project is the first of several we are actively developing, and it demonstrates that MGA Thermal’s technology is ready to scale across industrial and manufacturing sectors.”
Knode CEO Chris Nelson echoed the sentiment, noting that the project demonstrates a commercially viable path to electrify heavy industry.
“Keeping industries like mineral processing, refining, and materials manufacturing in Western Australia is going to be highly dependent on being able to decarbonise economically,” Nelson said.
A 2025 pre-feasibility study confirmed that MGA Thermal’s ETES technology will achieve price parity with traditional fossil fuel technologies at an industrial scale, a crucial milestone for the technology’s rollout.
“Price parity with fossil fuels has been the bar. We have cleared it,” Croudace said.
“While the upfront investment is significant, first movers will reap the benefits, leveraging available funding to lock in lower long-term energy costs and reduce exposure to rising fossil fuel prices.”