Temperature Conversion Brings New Investor: IdeaLab Invests In Cool Energy

In 2009 Cool Energy a manufacturer of Stirling engines that create electrical power from low-temperature heat sources announced that they had received a $500,000 small business innovation research grant from the National Science Foundation and today they announced new funding from Pasadena, California based Idealab.

The company has created a piece of technology for waste heat recovery that converts excess heat to electricity. The company has also combined their heat and power systems to work with both large scale buildings and residences.

According to Cool Energy their fourth-generation units are expected to produce up to 3000 Watts of electricity with temperatures pushing 300°C, while larger units are in the works.

Announcing the investment IdeaLab CEO Bill Gross said:

“Cool Energy’s technology is in a sweet spot for clean energy, enabling low-temperature waste heat recovery, and novel solar and biomass systems for distributed power generation.”

Other investments at Idealab have included CitySearch, eToys and Overture Services which was later acquired by Yahoo for approximately $1.6 billion.