A Startup Wants to Power Data Centers With ‘Supercritical’ Carbon Dioxide
6.1 relevance
Score Breakdown
technical depth 7
novelty 8
actionability 3
community 4
strategic 7
personal 7
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Novel data center cooling technology with strong infrastructure relevance.
Summary
American Supercritical exited stealth with $8M to retrofit data centers' simple-cycle gas turbines using supercritical CO2 units that boost efficiency by up to 50%—from ~35% to ~50%—by capturing waste heat in a closed-loop system, without extra emissions or water use. The 10-MW units emulate combined-cycle plants but are sized for distributed data center power, according to cofounders Simon Shuham and Matthew Carlson.