New Zealand, like the rest of the world, is confronted with two significant energy challenges. The first step is to respond to the risks of climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions caused by energy production and use. The second goal is to provide clean, secure, and affordable energy while also being environmentally responsible.
As of today, New Zealand’s new energy centre in Taranaki is pleased to announce a collaboration with an energy innovation ecosystems centre at Nanyang Technological University to facilitate the establishment of’ real world’ technology demonstration sites, also known as ‘testbeds,’ for validating innovative low emissions technology at scale in New Zealand. This will help the energy centre’s goal of accelerating the demonstration and commercialisation of energy innovation by leveraging energy innovation ecosystems centre know-how and vast experience in the deployment of demonstration testbeds for Asia Pacific energy innovators.
This opportunity will foster a stronger relationship and enable greater collaboration between New Zealand and Singapore in the energy innovation space.
The energy innovation ecosystems, Centre of Innovation for Energy, a joint initiative by the Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU), Enterprise Singapore, and Sustainable Energy Association of Singapore (SEAS), is an innovation cluster for clean energy with access to the world’s leading researchers in sustainability.
New Zealand’s new energy centre Chief Executive welcomes the partnership and believes it is an exciting opportunity for the energy centre to build on the experience energy innovation ecosystems centres have in the Asia Pacific region and facilitate the deployment of demonstration sites in New Zealand, which will assist innovators with mature technologies in moving closer to commercialisation.
“As we are developing our demonstration and commercialisation service-offerings to energy innovators in New Zealand, we wanted to build partnerships with organisations who have a great track record in delivering similar services internationally; organisations who have learnt over the years how to deploy testbeds to enable energy innovators to accelerate their pathways to commercialisation.
The partnership will give us access to know-how and experience, which would take us years to develop on our own. This opportunity will also foster a stronger relationship and enable greater collaboration between New Zealand and Singapore in the energy innovation space.” Said New Zealand’s new energy centre Chief Executive.
OpenGov Asia reported that even though a recent review of the country’s cleantech businesses revealed up to 300 companies working on technologies, applications, plastic alternatives, new energy sources, and industrial waste processing. In the 2020 financial year, 98 cleantech businesses that had been funded by New Zealand’s innovation agency, generated $334 million in revenue, supported nearly 2000 jobs, and invested in $95m worth of research and development. There were about 680 high-value research and development jobs.
New Zealand’s innovation agency and few other innovation companies have established the NZ CleanTech Mission partnership to convert local cleantech into profitable businesses.
Correspondingly, the New Zealand government, in implementing strategies, sets the policy direction and priorities for the New Zealand energy sector, with the goal of achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 while building a more productive, sustainable, and inclusive economy.
The energy innovation ecosystems centre aims to assist Singapore’s energy innovators by providing testbed sites and business opportunities to assist them in successfully commercialising and scaling up their innovation efforts. Today, the energy innovation ecosystems centre is one of the fastest-growing energy innovation ecosystems in Singapore, specialising in technology commercialisation and anchoring testbeds for energy innovations in the Asia Pacific region.
Executive Director of the Energy Research Institute at NTU said, “We are delighted with this partnership, as it will provide us with the platform to develop the capability to institutionalise the validation and test-bedding of novel low emissions energy solutions in real-world conditions. This will lead to joint deployment of energy innovation technologies in New Zealand and Singapore.”
