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.
