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(Bloomberg) — Startup Mainspring Energy Inc. signs a $ 150 million deal with renewable energy giant NextEra Energy Inc. to help companies avoid grid outages, a lesser-known power generation technology Was introduced.

Called a linear generator, it utilizes the non-combustion reaction of air and fuel to move a magnet back and forth through a copper coil to generate an electric current. In the video illustrations on the Zenmai website, it looks like a lying, constantly moving hopping.

Zenmai generators are the latest technology for companies that want to reduce greenhouse gas emissions while at the same time generate electricity in-house and protect themselves from the recent power outages that hit Texas and California. .. Packed in a box-like unit the same size as a parking space, it reaches full power in seconds and can run on natural gas, biogas, and hydrogen, potentially producing low-carbon or carbon-free electricity in the field. There is.

NextEra Energy Resources, the world’s largest unit of investor-owned producers of wind and solar power, plans to install generators at NextEra’s customer facilities. Opportunities to leverage NextEra’s extensive customer network will boost startups. But for Mainspring, deployment is doubly important and can convince potential customers to try technologies they’ve never heard of.

“This is a really new type of generation,” said founder and CEO Shannon Miller in an interview. “We often focus on engines and fuel cells. They have different characteristics. They have different value propositions.”

The royal fern generator may appeal to the same customers who are currently buying fuel cells, but the technology is quite different. The generator relies on the low temperature reaction of pressurized fuel and air rather than the electrochemical reaction in the fuel cell, driving the linear shaft back and forth via a copper coil. Two generators, packaged together in one 20-foot-long container, can generate 250 kilowatts of electricity. You can power the building or connect it directly to the grid.

John Ketchum, Chief Executive Officer of NextEra Energy Resources, said in a press release:

The Silicon Valley company has raised more than $ 130 million from investors such as Bill Gates, Statoil Ventures, KCK, Khosla Ventures and utility company American Electric Power, Miller said. In addition to the contract with NextEra, the company says supermarket chains across the country have agreed to install as many as 30 generators. Miller estimates that a typical grocery store can save 10% to 20% on electricity using a generator, compared to the cost of relying solely on the grid.

According to Mainspring, pilot deployments by multiple Fortune 500 companies began last June.

Mark McCullough, Executive Vice President of Energy Supply at American Electric Power, said his company was impressed with the low cost, low emissions of generators and the “dispatch potential” of being able to deliver power whenever needed. Said. Solar and wind energy are notorious for being weather and time zone dependent, but fuel cells take considerably longer to reach full power than generators, he said.

“It’s all a very easy-to-use machine in many ways,” McCullough said. “This provides an elegant solution for many use cases.”

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