Capstone Turbine Corporation (NASDAQ:CPST), a leading manufacturer of microturbine energy systems, announced today that it has received an order from HelioFocus for the development and modification of Capstone Turbine’s C65 MicroTurbine® to operate on solar energy.
Founded in 2007 and headquartered in Ness Ziona, Israel, HelioFocus Ltd. is engaged in the development of modular, high efficiency Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) systems. These systems will convert sunlight to grid electricity using a parabolic solar concentrator to focus the sun’s energy into a solar receiver that provides enough heat energy to drive Capstone’s modified turbine and power electronics.
Under the initial phase of development, Capstone will make modifications to the existing microturbine to operate on superheated air and integrate the microturbine with the HelioFocus solar concentrator system.
Capstone Turbine has been evaluating product development opportunities to combine the benefit of the microturbine and solar concentrator technologies. The traditional Capstone microturbine engine uses gaseous or liquid fuels to heat combustion air. The HelioFocus Solar Concentrator focuses enough sunlight energy to provide an equivalent amount of combustion heat to drive the microturbine. This fuel free renewable solution offers higher solar conversion efficiencies over traditional solar photovoltaic systems, the company said. In addition the increased power density of this system should reduce the amount of required real estate for siting these systems.
"This combined system leverages existing Capstone technology and continues to broaden the range of renewable fuels that are able to power our microturbines," said Mark Gilbreth, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of Capstone Turbine Corporation.
"Our company’s current focus is continued product development through strategic partnerships with forward looking companies," said Dr. Ory Zik, one of the Founders and CEO of HelioFocus. "Utilizing Capstone’s microturbine, our mutual goal is to develop a system that can operate entirely on sunlight."
About Capstone Turbine Corporation
Capstone Turbine Corporation is a producer of low-emission microturbine systems, and was the first to market commercially viable microturbine energy products. Capstone Turbine has shipped over 4,000 Capstone MicroTurbine® systems to customers worldwide. Capstone Turbine is a member of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Combined Heat and Power Partnership, which is committed to improving the efficiency of the nation’s energy infrastructure and reducing emissions of pollutants and greenhouse gases. Capstone Turbine is headquartered in the Los Angeles area with sales and/or service centers in New Jersey, New York, Mexico City, Milan, Bath, Shanghai and Tokyo.
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