Wednesday, March 16, 2011

NH's SustainX brings in $14.4M from GE and others

By James M. Connolly

SustainX Inc., which is developing technology that uses compressed air for energy storage, has received a $14.4 million investment from GE Energy Financial Services, a unit of GE (NYSE: GE) and other investors.

SustainX, located in West Lebanon, N.H., is a partner in GE’s Ecomagination Challenge’s Powering the Grid program. Other investors in the round include Cadent Energy Partners of Stamford, Conn., and prior investors Polaris Venture Partners and Rockport Capital.

In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, SustainX indicated that the $14.4 million round is part of a $17 million round, with $2.6 million of equity still to be sold.

Last year, the company had raised $5.4 million from the Energy Storage Program of the U.S. Department of Energy, and earlier had brought in $4 million.

SustainX said it is working with AES Energy Storage LLC to demonstrate a full-size system in the field, capable of storing enough energy to power 1,000 typical U.S. homes. Thomas Zarrella, CEO of SustainX said in a press release. “We are on schedule to develop a grid-scale prototype to be demonstrated at an affiliated AES site where we can showcase our transformative energy storage technology.”

To store energy, SustainX compresses air by using electricity to drive pistons inside cylinders. The high-pressure air is stored in above-ground vessels. To release energy when needed, the system uses stored air to drive the same pistons, which in turn drive a generator.

SustainX was founded in 2007 by engineers at the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth College.