Overview
- Critical Energy said it closed $22 million in seed funding with $3 million in venture debt, a round led by Susa Ventures and Upfront Ventures that the company disclosed Wednesday.
- The company was founded by Spencer Jackson, a former SpaceX engineer, who is applying rocket-engine design and manufacturing methods to turbomachinery.
- Critical Energy has built a pilot facility in Los Angeles and says the new funding is earmarked to build a first 2.5 megawatt commercial project that it expects to place into service by 2027.
- The startup plans to work with machine shops to mass-produce container-sized surface turbines in factories rather than assembling custom units on-site, positioning itself as a supplier to drilling-focused geothermal firms.
- Backers cite large theoretical geothermal capacity and growing demand for always-on clean power from data centers and AI infrastructure, and the company aims to scale to gigawatts of turbine output in the early 2030s and to 300 GW per year by 2045.