69 was a great help for commercialising our technology in that regard, but around 2015-2016, the scheme was stopped suddenly,” Mohseni recounts. He and his team had, however, achieved several successful r&d programs and partnerships, including one novel case of solar-thermal generation in which a concentrated solar power parabolic dish system focused the sun’s radiation on a thermochemical energy storage unit, heating it to 1200 C to drive a gas microturbine and its generator, potentially for combined power, heating and cooling (viewable at https://www. youtube.com/watch?v=p10FHSgCTEs). The partner in question has gone on to build further prototypes in South Africa using NEX Power’s solutions. “So, we kept going and looked for applicable markets for our technology. CHP is a highly cost-driven industry and microturbines aren’t cheap,” Mohseni says. “Microturbines are very, very reliable, and the power-to-weight ratio is also very good, but compared with, say, reciprocating engines or normal, household gas generators, their prices are high.” To make the company’s microturbine more price-competitive, the design was scaled up to a 15 kW unit, and simultaneously a few main areas were identified as suitable for applying its technology, each defined by its own approximate price point at which the market would accept the engine – with each price being ‘unlocked’ at a certain scale of unit manufacturing. “We can’t go straight to stationary power because a 15 kW CHP system has to cost $3000, and we’d need to manufacture 50,000 units per year to get the price that low. But aviation demand is driven less by initial price and more by power-to-weight ratio, and manufacturing just one thousand 15 kW turbogenerators per year would enable a price of $15,000 per unit, which is competitive for aerospace, particularly range extension in high-end UAVs,” Mohseni says. “For instance, a multirotor or VTOLtransitioning UAV running on 15 kW of power for two hours, or 30 kWh, would probably weigh around 75 kg if designed well; but 30 kWh of batteries weighs at least 150 kg, making it impossible for such UAVs to go all-electric. “On the other hand, our 15 kWh gas microturbine, plus fuel weight for two hours and all other ancillaries and mounting components, comes to 40 kg. Certainly, as flight endurances drop, electric becomes much more competitive, but UAV missions aren’t getting shorter; they’re getting longer. So, our 15 kW GenSet is well-positioned as a UAV range extender, and also as an auxiliary power unit (APU) for air taxis because 15 kW of auxiliary power has historically suited 10-passenger private jet designs.” NEX Power’s 15 kW GenSet is 450 mm long, 180 mm at maximum diameter and has a dry weight of 10 kg. The turbogenerator outputs power over an 800 V DC bus (850 V maximum) with up to 55 ARMS as its nominal phase current, the typical configuration featuring an alternator at the front together with the air intake and filter. As of the time of writing, the 15 kW GenSet is considered by Mohseni and his team to be at technology readiness level 8, with level 9 consisting of final designs for integration and manufacturability per a given end-user’s specifications, as well as some final stages of work on its ECU. NEX Power 15 kW GenSet gas micro-generator | Dossier Uncrewed Systems Technology | August/September 2025 As well as running on Jet A, diesel and natural gas, the 15 kW GenSet has been successfully tested on hydrogen, integrated onto a UAV from NEX’s sister company ARC Aero Systems The 15 kW GenSet is well-positioned as a UAV range extender and also as an auxiliary power unit for air taxis
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