Lazarus Energy raises $16M Series A for shipping-container CO2 turbines
What's the deal? Lazarus Energy raised $16 million in a Series A round led by the 50/50 Accelerator, just months after the Hawthorne startup formed. The company is developing supercritical carbon dioxide turbomachinery aimed at data centers and natural gas power needs.
Why now? Co-founders Luke Malcolm and George Kitromelides left Anduril IndustriesDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → to launch Lazarus because of surging demand in energy markets. Data centers often rely on coal or intermittent solar and wind, while compact nuclear remains uncommercialised.
What's the endgame? Lazarus designed a 5MW turbine that fits into a standard shipping container and connects to various power sources. Carbon dioxide becomes dense at high temperature and pressure, letting the company shrink turbine size instead of tweaking century-old gas and steam designs.
"We developed a turbine from the ground up instead of trying to make a gas or steam turbine that was more efficient," said Malcolm, co-founder and chief technology officer.
The founders say the smaller turbines could cut energy costs by more than half, with a footprint four to five times smaller than a traditional setup and no on-site construction. Lead time for delivery could run three to six months, against several years for conventional turbines.
What could go wrong? The technology is still moving from research lab to market. "Applying this ethos to supercritical carbon dioxide is what will take the technology out of the research lab and into the real world," Malcolm said — a step the startup has yet to prove at scale.
The signal: The round lands in the 34th percentile for size, a modest raise for an unproven hardware bet. But it reflects investor appetite for energy infrastructure that can meet data center demand faster and cheaper than legacy turbines.
Read more: latimes.com
Image credit: lydurs
