The Port of
Bremerton has inked a lease agreement with a clean
energy company it hopes will power future job growth in Kitsap
County.
The tenant is SuperCritical
Technologies Inc., a 3-year-old startup organized
with the modest goal of revolutionizing the energy
sector.
“It’s a massive market,” SuperCritical CEO Craig Husa said
during a presentation to the port commission Tuesday night. “We’ve
got great technology that disrupts that massive market.”
The startup has developed power
plants that harness supercritical
Co2, rather than traditional steam, to power turbines and
generate electricity.
A key advantage of the technology is it’s
compact. SuperCritical claims it can produce a
5-megawatt plant small enough to fit in a 40-foot
shipping container.
The company’s systems can be used
to convert waste heat at industrial facilities into
electricity, which can help offset the facility’s power
needs.
For now, SuperCritical is a scrappy startup with a tiny team.
Its leaders see unlimited potential for growth.
“This is one of the reason’s we’re excited to be here at the
Port of Bremerton,” Husa said. “We’ve got great space, we’ve got
potential to grow, there’s a potential labor force that’s strong in
the area, we’ve got access to shipping… it’s really is an awesome
place for us to be.”
All of this was music to the ears of port officials.
“This is something we could see growing really big,” port CEO
Jim Rothlin said. “… we talk about trying to find what’s going to
be our niche here. This could possibly be our niche… nowhere else
has this kind of thing.”
SuperCritical is starting small at the port. The company has
agreed to lease a 6,000-square-foot building in Olympic View
Industrial Park for $2,880 a month. The initial term is for two
years, with the option for 10 two-year extensions.
The port is obligated to install a security fence in January
2016 and upgrade the building’s electrical system. The cost of
those improvements is estimated at $53,000.
The full lease agreement is embedded below.
We’ll have a full story on SuperCritical technologies soon. In
the meantime, you can read a
Puget Sound Business Journal Q&A with company officials
here.
SuperCritical
Lease