Capstone Turbine (CPST) has received $3 million in grants from the DOE and Israel’s Binational Industrial R&D Foundation.  The grant from the DOE will go towards the development of a flex fuel microturbine capable of running on biofuels (mostly from agricultural crop waste).  The DOE will provide $2.5 of the $3.8 million project which will also include participation from the Argonne National Laboratory, the U of Cali at Irvine and Packer Engineering.  Initial estimates show that a Capstone microturbine using non food crop waste could potentially supply a 600 acre farm with 65kW of power

Said VP of Marketing at CPST Jim Crouse, “We see increasing interest from customers with a need for an ultra clean generation product like our microturbine to convert biomass into electricity. Farm and industrial biomass wastes can be converted into a useable fuel using a variety of processes. Gasification is one such process, and this project provides the basis for Capstone to design a special fuel delivery system to handle these hydrogen rich synthesis gases.”

Capstone has also announced a collaboration with Israel’s HelioFocus to develop a microturbine to produce power from concentrated solar energy.  The project is being funded in part with a $800K grant from B.I.R.D (see above).  The goal is convert concentrated solar energy into super heated air which in theory will drive a specially designed C65 Capstone turbine to produce more efficient solar power.  The system will also have the option of using natural gas to supplement the solar energy and provide a continuous stream of energy. 

It should be noted that these grants are still subject to execution of contracts and sub contracts with all the parties involved.

Shares of CPST aren’t moving too much on the news.. up nearly 2%.