Petra Power looks to modernize energy for data centers and defense vehicles

As AI gobbles up an ever larger amount of energy, the hunt is on for efficient and cost-effective power sources. One of the companies leading the charge is Petra Power. Petra, which was founded in 2017, sells solid oxide fuel cells — ceramic devices that convert fuel, like natural gas, into electric power without burning it. The company markets them as a more efficient and environmentally friendly way to operate data centers and large vehicles.

随着人工智能消耗的能源越来越多，人们开始寻找高效且经济的能源。Petra Power 就是引领这一潮流的公司之一。Petra 成立于 2017 年，销售固体氧化物燃料电池——这是一种陶瓷装置，无需燃烧即可将天然气等燃料转化为电能。该公司将其作为一种更高效、更环保的运营数据中心和大型车辆的方式进行推广。

Petra’s founder, Aaron Goodman, told TechCrunch that his company’s product has significantly lower fuel costs and emissions than traditional power sources, and that they have much less of a physical footprint, too, because they’re more compact and lightweight. The efficiency, and the cost savings that come with it, is what makes the fuel cells attractive. “Combustion takes fuel and creates explosions,” Goodman said, describing how traditional power generation works. “Those explosions create heat. That heat creates motion. The motion powers an electromotive force, which eventually creates electricity. It’s a lot of steps, and they all have so much loss in them that you end up with a really inefficient system.”

Petra 的创始人 Aaron Goodman 告诉 TechCrunch，与传统能源相比，他公司的产品燃料成本和排放量显著降低，而且由于体积更小、重量更轻，其物理占地面积也小得多。这种效率以及随之而来的成本节约，正是燃料电池的吸引力所在。“燃烧需要燃料并产生爆炸，”Goodman 在描述传统发电方式时说，“这些爆炸产生热量。热量产生运动。运动驱动电动势，最终产生电力。这需要很多步骤，而且每一步都有很大的损耗，最终导致系统效率非常低下。”

Petra’s fuel cells skip most of these steps. “What fuel cells do is they take the electrons directly off of the fuel, so they strip the fuel of its electrons, which creates electricity,” he explained. “It’s one step, no loss, and subsequently, in theory, at least, they’re much, much more efficient.” As a result, companies that run off fuel cells stand to save a significant amount on fuel costs, Goodman said. Although it may offer an innovative product, the customer base is still emerging for Petra. Goodman said that his company is targeting two different types of customers: data centers and the Defense Department.

Petra 的燃料电池跳过了大部分步骤。“燃料电池的作用是直接从燃料中获取电子，剥离燃料的电子，从而产生电力，”他解释道，“这是一个步骤，没有损耗，因此在理论上，它们的效率要高得多。”Goodman 表示，因此，使用燃料电池的公司可以节省大量的燃料成本。尽管 Petra 提供了创新产品，但其客户群仍处于萌芽阶段。Goodman 表示，他的公司瞄准了两类客户：数据中心和国防部。

Goodman doesn’t want to reveal specific agreements just yet, but said Petra is currently working with neoclouds and other infrastructure providers that were a few steps down from the hyperscaler crowd. The target for first deployment with these customers is 2028, with full-scale production for the company hopefully set for 2029, Goodman said. “Hyperscalers are an ICP [ideal customer profile] for us, and we talk a lot to them, but we don’t have anything firm with them yet,” said Goodman. “We’re still kind of working in that direction. Obviously, they’re the largest consumers of power. They’re the ones that we can make the biggest impact with, so that’s where we’d like to go.”

Goodman 目前不想透露具体的协议，但他表示 Petra 正在与一些云服务商和其他基础设施提供商合作，这些公司在规模上略逊于超大规模云厂商。Goodman 说，与这些客户的首次部署目标定在 2028 年，公司希望在 2029 年实现全面生产。“超大规模云厂商是我们理想的客户画像，我们与他们交流很多，但目前还没有达成任何确定的协议，”Goodman 说，“我们仍在朝着这个方向努力。显然，他们是最大的电力消耗者。他们是我们能产生最大影响力的对象，所以这是我们想要发展的方向。”

The other customer — the government — is also still taking shape. The idea is that Petra’s fuel cells will be able to provide auxiliary power for land vehicles, meaning electricity for onboard equipment when the main engine is off. But Petra’s product has not actually deployed on a live vehicle yet, Goodman clarified. Instead, the fuel cells are in the testing phase, during which the government is deciding whether to move forward, he said. Petra is a small team — some 15 people — but the company is growing, Goodman said. Petra has so far received nearly $9 million in contracts from the Defense Department, and the hope is to scale that work significantly in the coming years, he said.

另一个客户——政府——的需求也仍在形成中。其构想是 Petra 的燃料电池能够为陆地车辆提供辅助动力，即在主发动机关闭时为车载设备供电。但 Goodman 澄清说，Petra 的产品尚未在实际车辆上部署。他说，燃料电池目前处于测试阶段，政府正在决定是否推进该项目。Goodman 表示，Petra 是一个由约 15 人组成的小团队，但公司正在成长。他说，Petra 迄今已从国防部获得了近 900 万美元的合同，并希望在未来几年内大幅扩大这项工作。