Centrica invests in US power tech startup

Centrica has announced its investment in a US startup that offers flexible renewable onsite power to businesses. The announcement comes alongside a consortium of other investors providing a total of $83 […]

Centrica has announced its investment in a US startup that offers flexible renewable onsite power to businesses.

The announcement comes alongside a consortium of other investors providing a total of $83 million (£59m) financing to California-based EtaGen, founded on Stanford University research.

Its Linear Generator uses a low-temperature reaction of air and natural gas to drive magnets through copper coils to produce electricity.

The company’s novel design is said to achieve high efficiency with few moving parts, making it affordable and reliable with lower greenhouse gas emissions than the grid.

Shannon Miller, CEO and Co-founder of EtaGen said: “Following several years of successful trials of our Linear Generator technology, this investment allows us to fund our commercial product as well as enhance our business development capabilities. It also allows us to demonstrate our potential to satisfy the distributed generation needs of customers around the world.”

The investment from the UK energy giant comes from its innovation arm, which committed to invest £100 million over the next five years in startups and incubation programmes.

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