Deep Tech Energy
From Deep Sea to Tornadoes: Hardware Meetup Showcases Bold Energy Innovations
The latest Hardware Meetup brought together founders, engineers, investors, and first-time attendees for an evening of big ideas and bigger ambitions. Since 2016, these gatherings have been a platform for showcasing the best of New Zealand’s hardware and deep-tech scene — and this event proved why the community keeps coming back.
Thanks to the support of Outset Ventures, Blender Design, Lowndes Jordan, and Blackbird Ventures, the night featured cutting-edge presentations, grassroots pitches, and plenty of networking that left attendees buzzing with possibility.
Energy Bank: Storing the Ocean’s Power
Tim from Energy Bank opened the evening with a vision of turning the sea into a giant energy storehouse. Their subsea compressed-air system integrates directly with floating offshore wind turbines, allowing power to be stored deep below the surface and released on demand.
The journey to this point has been anything but linear. From early experiments lifting concrete blocks in Lake Taupō, to slurry-based systems, and now to advanced air compression technology, Energy Bank has pivoted and refined relentlessly. The company now stands poised for large-scale trials in Norway, with potential government backing of €25 million to match investor funding.
“Two-thirds of our stored energy comes from the ocean’s own heat capacity,” Tim explained, “so in a way, we’re pulling energy straight out of the universe on demand.”
Vortex Power Systems: Harnessing Controlled Tornadoes
Next up, Pazan from Vortex Power Systems captured imaginations with a pitch that sounded almost like science fiction: creating controlled tornadoes to generate clean electricity.
The concept is elegantly simple: use waste industrial heat — usually difficult and costly to get rid of — to trigger rising air currents that form spinning vortices. Those mini-tornadoes, in turn, drive turbines.
What started as dust-devil experiments at the University of Auckland has grown into a pilot plant in Gisborne, complete with 70-metre-high vortices. The challenge now is scaling the system to spin faster and higher, but the potential is massive. With waste heat representing one of industry’s biggest inefficiencies, even a modest 5% recovery rate could transform energy economics.
Ternary: Liquid Electricity in a Bottle
Sean from Ternary rounded out the keynote talks with perhaps the most memorable analogy of the night: “We turn vinegar into vodka — and back again.”
Behind the humour is a serious breakthrough. Their system uses electricity to convert ethanol into a higher-energy state, then reconverts it to release hydrogen for fuel cells. The result? A liquid energy storage method that’s 10 times more energy-dense than lithium batteries, safe to handle, and fully compatible with existing tanker and storage infrastructure.
Applications range from mining trucks and heavy machinery to shipping energy across oceans. Early interest from global chemical producers and heavy equipment manufacturers suggests that Turnery could play a pivotal role in industries where batteries simply don’t cut it.
Community, Sponsors, and Networking
Beyond the headliners, the meetup also celebrated the broader ecosystem:
Blackbird Ventures reaffirmed their commitment to ambitious Kiwi founders, especially in energy.
Lowndes Jordan offered pro bono legal office hours for startups navigating their first contracts.
Blender Design highlighted their end-to-end product development services.
Rocket Lab announced more than 60 open engineering roles in Auckland.
Student engineers, freelancers, and early-stage startups pitched their ideas — from AI-powered agri-drones to innovative PCB testers.
The diversity of voices reinforced what makes Hardware Meetup special: it’s not just about the companies already making headlines, but also about the people and projects taking their first steps.
Takeaways: Hardware Boldness, Kiwi Style
Three themes emerged over the night:
Big bets on energy. From subsea batteries to tornado turbines, New Zealand hardware founders are tackling global-scale problems.
Persistence is essential. Each speaker shared pivots, prototypes, and failures that ultimately shaped their breakthroughs.
Community drives momentum. Investors, students, freelancers, and founders all play a role in keeping the ecosystem thriving.
As the evening wrapped up, hosts thanked sponsors and organisers — and reminded everyone of the next meetup in Christchurch later this year. If the energy in the room was anything to go by, the future of New Zealand hardware is as bold and dynamic as the technologies being built.
✨ Want to get involved? Keep an eye on upcoming Hardware Meetups. Whether you’re a student, a founder, or just curious about hardware and deep-tech, there’s a place for you in this growing community.
Speakers
Speaker 1: Sean Molloy from Ternary Kinetics
Sean Molloy, a co-founder of Ternary Kinetics, is an experienced serial entrepreneur, chemical engineer, CEO, and director, who has over 15 years experience in the development of novel sustainable energy and materials technologies.
In 2014, Sean co-founded waste to value technology developer Avertana, whose technology produces a basket of quality of life commodities from titanium rich steel making waste.
Prior to founding Avertana, Sean has worked in automotive biogas production (Greenlane Biogas), and the commercialization of gas fermentation for Carbon Capture and Utilisation in sustainable fuels and chemical production (LanzaTech). Sean is a director of ultra low carbon emissions Zinc recovery technology developer, Zincovery.
Sean’s latest entrepreneur endeavour is Ternary, where he is the CEO and co-founder. Ternary is a startup developing a technology to transport clean, low cost electricity, as a liquid for aviation, maritime, mining, trucking and other hard decarbonise sectors
Speaker 2: Tim Hawkey from EnergyBank
Tim Hawkey is the founder and CEO of EnergyBank, a DeepTech company on a mission to solve the energy storage problem. Since it's founding in 2020, EnergyBank has prototyped, proven and iterated through 3 novel energy storage approaches in conjunction with target customers. With it's latest technology iteration, EnergyBank has now secured a world first testing slot on a grid connected floating turbine off the coast of Norway (where EnergyBank will be moving in the short term). Through an integrated, multifaceted approach, their technology substantially increases the returns and scalability of offshore wind generation by leveraging the harsh deep ocean environment to it's benefit.
Speaker 3: Perzaan Mehta from Vortex Power Systems
Perzaan Mehta is CEO of Vortex Power Systems, a start up aiming to disrupt the way we deal with wasted heat, by developing a way to turn the excess heat into a waterspout. The wind speeds produced by the waterspout can be used to turn a turbine and generate clean electricity, and providing another tool in the fight against climate change.
MC: Mikayla Stokes
Mikayla Stokes is a mechatronics engineer at Crown Equipment making autonomous forklifts. She loves using tech to make cool wearable things like a light-up dress or 3D printed earrings. She's passionate about creating an inclusive community where any kid can pursue a future in STEM, and is the two time overall female winner of the BrightSparks inventing competition.
Event Sponsors
Blender
Blender is a product design and development consultancy. Their collaborative approach, strategic design process and technical know-how deliver engineered, purpose-made products. Since 2006 Blender has partnered with many incredible people, helping them to realise their vision and shape the future by supporting them with exceptional product design, prototyping, engineering, and manufacturing services.
Outset Ventures
Outset Ventures are committed to empowering overlooked science and engineering innovators to transform their ideas into groundbreaking ventures, helping them succeed at the critical early stages. As New Zealand's center of gravity for science and engineering startups and scaleups, Outset is home to a community of 40+ founder-led companies, 5000 square meters of laboratory and workshop spaces, and the country's most active deep technology investment fund.
blackbird
Blackbird Ventures is a venture capital fund based in New Zealand and Australia. Blackbird backs generational ambition and invests in the best startup companies, all the way through their journey from idea to beyond IPO.
lowndes jordan
Lowndes Jordan is a top niche law firm with corporate, commercial, property, employment, IP and litigation service offerings. The firm acts for a wide range of organisations across the spectrum of maturity from startups through to listed companies/multinationals. Lowndes Jordan has deep expertise in the startup space, having acted for startups, founders, investors and employees of startup companies on a wide range of matters including capital raising (including crowdfunding), ESOPs, shareholders’ agreements and disputes, IP protection and licensing, commercial contracts, US flips, acquisitions and IPOs.