Critical Energy raises $19M seed to build modular geothermal turbines
What's the deal? Critical EnergyDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, a startup founded by former SpaceX engineer Spencer Jackson, has raised $19M in seed funding to build modular turbines purpose-built for geothermal power plants. The round was led by Susa Ventures and Upfront Ventures, with participation from MaC Venture CapitalDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, Susquehanna Sustainable InvestmentsDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, Humba VenturesDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, Scribble VenturesDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, and Underground VenturesDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →. The startup also secured $3M in venture debt from Silicon Valley Bank, bringing its total early capital to $22M.
The funds will go toward building Critical Energy's first 2.5 megawatt project. Jackson, who worked on Falcon Heavy, Starship, and the Raptor rocket engine at SpaceX, is applying rocket engine design principles to turbomachinery for geothermal plants.
Why now? Geothermal energy has at least 42 terawatts of capacity available worldwide, according to the IEA — more than twice the world's energy use last year. A recent report found that advanced geothermal could power nearly two-thirds of new data centres by 2030, making it a strong candidate for the tech industry's surging power needs.
Yet Jackson says there's a looming shortage of compatible turbines. Many projects today rely on large turbines that take months to years to assemble on site. "It's still way faster and cheaper to make it the other direction, to build it in a factory," he said.
Critical Energy's first power plant is scheduled for completion by 2027 at an existing geothermal site. It is also designing a larger 5 megawatt module aimed at enhanced geothermal companies like Fervo Energy, which drill deeper to extract more heat.
What could go wrong? Geothermal investment still pales in comparison to advanced nuclear fission and fusion. Scaling factory-built turbines to gigawatt levels — Jackson's goal for the early 2030s, with a long-term target of 300 gigawatts a year by 2045 — is an enormous manufacturing challenge for a seed-stage company.
The signal: A $19M seed is unusually large for a hardware-intensive energy startup, and the investor mix — led by software-focused funds Susa Ventures and Upfront Ventures rather than specialist climate or energy investors — suggests growing conviction that geothermal's turbine bottleneck is a venture-scale opportunity. With the IEA pegging geothermal's global potential at more than twice current world energy consumption, Critical Energy is positioning itself as the picks-and-shovels play for a sector that could move faster than nuclear to meet data centre power demand.
Read more: TechCrunch · Cover photo: Hellisheiði geothermal turbine, Pi3.124, CC BY-SA 3.0
