Introducing Jude Inwumoh – Engineer

At Shape, we have made a commitment to understanding and educating ourselves and our partners on the benefits planning towards sustainability, and how we can not only implement these ideals in our work environments and projects, but further disrupt industries to thinking clean and green.

Shape Energy is an efficient energy company who provides mission critical solutions such as compressed air/gas and power generation. We often refer compressed air to being the 4^th utility and recognise that most people do not realise how important compressed air services are to critical industries / essential services throughout New Zealand, including the healthcare, transport, food, and manufacturing industries.

Educating the wider industry around how inefficient air/gas systems can negatively impact business function and the environment is what we at Shape Energy aim to achieve every day. Helping us to achieve that is our newest engineer, Jude Inwumoh, who sat down with us to answer some questions on what he thinks about the future of efficient energy.

Tell us about your background and how you developed a passion in efficient energies?

It all started in my home country of Nigeria. The country has access to a lot of natural energy resources, being solar and wind whilst also arguably having the worst electricity network, globally. So right in front of us, we have both the problem and the solution. The goal now, is to educate people enough to look at renewable energy as a viable option for their homes and educate those around them. Hopefully, this would drive a community effort to consider renewable energy and affect change at a government level as communities lobby.

What people in first world countries don’t necessarily appreciate is how taken for granted reliable electricity is and how this can affect every level of their lives. From not being able to cook food, to watching television and more sinister things like not having streetlights which can reduce road safety and increase crime. This means that in first world countries, moving to renewable energies, reducing emissions through simple things like riding a bike to work is not something they need to consider. So, spreading awareness and educating people to realise the consequences of climate change in the future (when it may be a reality) and driving change is a way that I can help.

You have done some travel based on education opportunities, tell us a bit about those experiences and the key learnings from each of those places

After completing my Bachelor’s in Electrical Engineering in Nigeria, I ventured to University of Leeds in England to complete my Master’s in Electrical and Electronics Engineering. There, I learnt quickly how a country with so little availability of renewable energy sources such as solar could still attempt to use renewable sources to provide their power. I asked myself, why are we not using the resource we have in Nigeria?

This led me to diving deeper into control systems and fault finding relating to renewable energy systems which led me to Doctorate studies at the Auckland University of Technology in Auckland, New Zealand. This allowed me to push my theoretical understanding and application of utilising artificial intelligence and apply it to fault finding in High-Voltage DC, distribution systems. I see my next adventure in NZ helping me to hone these skills, apply them practically and successfully and continue my goal of educating people in renewable energies.

What attracted you to Shape Energy and what do you hope to learn and contribute?

The opportunities to learn and contribute to the renewable energies space. I see Shape Energy as a company that has an agile, fast moving, and flexible structure that will allow me to learn and experiment with my theoretical knowledge that I have learnt in all my studies, within a safe environment. I also see big opportunities for Shape Energy to help me build my profile and drive my overall goal of educating people in renewable energies as a feasible option. I also see Shape Energy as a place that I can learn about different products and disciplines, including compressed air and gases. I look forward to applying the same ideas I have learnt around renewable energy principles and emission reduction to new discipline such as Helium and Carbon Dioxide recovery, equipment emission monitoring, and filtration.

You talk about and have an interest in renewables, in a very broad sense, including gas (Oxygen and Nitrogen) production and gas recovery. Tell us a bit more about that?

I have a passion for anything in the science realm. I have thought of how we can recycle the harmful gaseous waste like  and co into useful gases, implementing biogas as a fuel and replacing fossil fuels with hydrogen gases in combustible engines and helium recovery systems. This will help with the electrification of our transport systems and promote a society with almost zero carbon emissions.