NZ company is a finalist in the 2014 Defense Energy Technology Challenge

Fastec Ltd, based in Wellington NZ, is a finalist in the 5th biannual Defense Energy Technology Challenge.

Over 200 companies submitted into the Pacific Defense Energy Technology Challenge, with 20 selected to be presenting awardees and an expected 50 to showcase their solutions on-site during the Pacific Defense Energy Summit in Honolulu, Hawaii, 15-17 September 2014. (This program is co-located with the Asia Pacific Clean Energy Summit and the Asia Pacific Resilience Innovation Summit.)

Fastec is the only company not based inside North America that has made it through the semifinals and into the finals.

The US Department of Defense is seeking innovative energy solutions to increase the safety of its troops, lower energy costs and reduce its reliance on foreign energy supplies. It hopes to partner with innovative companies to meet its two goals in clean energy technology investment - energy security and independence.

Fastec’s innovation is an electric motor starter. Fastec Start can be used where motor starting is difficult because of voltage drop on the line, where three-phase power is not available or where the power supply does not have capacity to start a 3 kW motor even though it might be able to run it. For example, Fastec Start will start and run a 2.2 kW three-phase submersible pump using a 4 kW single-phase generator.

Applications are in agriculture (pumping), marine (small generators), industrial (running three-phase motors from single-phase supply),  renewable energy systems (expanding the system capability), original equipment manufacturers (avoid the need to convert from three-phase) and power and line companies (solve difficult rural supply situations and reduce peak demand).

Organisations such as the military and disaster relief needing portable power supplies would gain considerable weight and fuel savings by using small single-phase  generators with Fastec Start.