EcoLabs and WITT Carbonzero Testbed

Ara Ake has facilitated a partnership between EcoLabs - a joint initiative by the Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore), Enterprise Singapore, and Sustainable Energy Association of Singapore - and the Western Institute of Technology at Taranaki (WITT).

The project aims to successfully demonstrate emissions lowering energy innovation - from Singapore and New Zealand - to help with the decarbonisation of Aotearoa New Zealand.

Ara Ake has been exploring several locations for the development of testbeds (demonstration sites) in New Zealand, and such a site is being scoped between Western Institute of Technology at Taranaki (WITT), EcoLabs and Ara Ake.

The project is using two of WITT's current buildings - one they will assign as the testbed, and the other as the controlled variable - to implement innovative energy solutions. It will provide real-world technology exposure to potential and existing students in New Zealand, developing the next generation of vocational training.

WITT is one of 17 subsidiaries of Te Pūkenga, which is bringing together a national network of integrated learning that supports learners, employers and communities to gain the skills, knowledge and capabilities that Aotearoa New Zealand needs for now and in the future.

Te Pūkenga is developing a sustainability strategy with a mission that aims to embed sustainability over all subsidiaries within the network, covering institutes of technology and polytechnics (ITPs) and the work based learning (WBL) divison. This WITT testbed project is an opportunity that could be replicated across a number of the institutes, significantly contributing to their sustainability goals.

The purpose is to successfully demonstrate international and national emission lowering energy innovation to deliver:

• A demonstrable improvement in WITT’s energy-related carbon footprint, towards 2025 carbon neutral goals
• A viable testbed and scaling opportunities for global and New Zealand-based energy innovators
• Tangible and interactive technology solutions, to stimulate the current and future new energy talent pipeline.

This testbed project was announced in Singapore in April where Ara Ake and WITT’s Chief Executives, presented the project to Singapore's Minister of State for the Ministry of Trade and Industry.

From left to right are: Mr Jeffrey Siow, Managing Director and Chief Operating Officer, Enterprise Singapore; Mr John Snook, Chief Executive, WITT; Ms Low Yen Ling, Singapore's Minister of State for the Ministry of Trade and Industry and Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth; Dr Cristiano Marantes, Chief Executive, Ara Ake; Professor Lam Khin Yong, NTU Senior Vice President (Research); Mr Mahesh Kumar, Programme Director, Ecolabs Centre of Innovation for Energy.