Rocket Tech Is Poised to Generate Clean Power for Data Centers
(Bloomberg) -- A startup founded by former SpaceX employees has raised $55 million for technology that runs on natural gas and can provide always-available, carbon-free electricity. The goal: to eventually power artificial intelligence data centers.
Arbor Energy uses rocket-inspired technology that combusts fuel with a stream of oxygen and creates so-called supercritical carbon dioxide — that is, CO2 in a fluid state — it uses to spin a turbine. The CO2 is then captured and stored.
The Series A funding round led by Lowercarbon Capital and Voyager Ventures is intended to help Arbor build a one megawatt pilot unit and develop a 25-megawatt commercial system. Arbor’s commercial facility would be able to generate a fraction of the power demands of US data centers, which BloombergNEF projects will more than double by 2035 to 78 gigawatts.
The startup’s initial system ran on wood and agricultural waste, which allowed Arbor to remove carbon from the atmosphere. But this year, it changed it to accommodate natural gas in response to requests from data center and utility customers that it declined to name.
Shortages for natural gas turbines — one of the most desired pieces of power equipment in the AI-electric boom — have created an opening for Arbor’s system, said Chief Executive Officer and co-founder Brad Hartwig. While the handful of companies that manufacture natural gas turbine blades are overwhelmed, with years-long backlogs, Arbor's turbines can be 3D-printed by dozens of local Los Angeles-based suppliers and can be made with common nickel-based alloys, he said.
“The power demand is here, and it's massive,” said Hartwig.
Biomass absorbs CO2, and burning it and storing the carbon makes the technology carbon negative. Using gas with carbon capture ensures no CO2 ends up in the atmosphere, but it doesn’t clean the skies. Delivering clean power can be more impactful now given the scale of energy the world needs, Hartwig said, while the carbon removal industry remains nascent.
The company is planning to build its first commercial unit in 2027 in Los Angeles, with the goal of turning it on in 2028, Hartwig said. Arbor projects this commercial system will be able to generate electricity for $100 per megawatt-hour, and that it can bring costs down to $70 per megawatt-hour. That would be less than electricity generated by a new natural gas plant, according to some estimates.
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