The full House of Representatives will get a chance to vote on whether Dean Kamen’s research firm, DEKA, should be allowed to install a power-generating Stirling engine in a state-owned building as part of a demonstration project.
The House Science, Technology and Energy Committee by a 14-4 vote sent the proposal to the House floor in the form a bill that would authorize the test, although only after tweaking it a bit to show that the state’s Office of Energy and Planning doesn’t have to go through with the project if staff don’t feel it is worthwhile.
The Stirling engine is a design that for more than a century has shown great promise of efficient power generation, but hasn’t been truly commercialized. DEKA says it has developed a refrigerator-sized device that burns natural gas, producing up to 10 kilowatts of electricity and 40 kilowatts of heat efficiently and cleanly. The company has had a version running in its Manchester Millyard building since 2013 and has other prototypes, but it would like to install one in a state building, to aid project visibility.
The state Senate has already approved the bill.
David Brooks