Overview
When electrical contractor and business owner Brad Donovan discovered broiler farms contribute 1.8 million tonnes of CO2 to Australia’s annual greenhouse gas emissions through shed heating alone, he took action.
A piping hot concept
He founded Ground Source Systems in 2015, working with the University of Melbourne to harness the soil’s geothermal, which is always between 12-18°C. The start-up used underground pipes to heat or cool the water used by the air conditioning units of poultry farm sheds. By integrating its heat pump innovation with photovoltaic solar panels, it could reduce LPG usage on broiler farms for heating and cooling by 86%.
Under Radium’s wing
Ground Source Systems secured grant funding for a full-scale solar panel and ground-source heat pump system — with LPG backup. It will provide heating and cooling for a large New South Wales commercial broiler facility.
Pandemic pressures and the R&D program’s larger set-up costs left Ground Source Systems in a pinch.
Equity funding wasn’t an option. Ground Source Systems needed new capital quickly to expedite its new project. The start-up had been claiming the R&D Tax Incentive refund since 2015. Once the green-energy innovator learned about R&D financing, it applied for a Radium Advance and used the capital to get its project moving.
Ground Source Systems Director Brad Donovan says, “Now we’ve discovered Radium Advances, we intend to include them in our financial strategy to accelerate our future R&D.”
Today, Ground Source Systems is on track to help meat producers worldwide reduce their CO2 emissions and move towards net zero.
Download the case study to discover how Ground Source Systems used a Radium Advance to set up a new research project and reinvest in more R&D.
For more information on Ground Source Systems, visit Ground Source Systems.
