How it started
History
The company was founded in 1998 as NoMac Energy Systems in Tarzana, a portmanteau of the surnames of its two founders, James Noe and Robin Mackay. The pair were formerly employed by AlliedSignal, but left to develop their ideas for a microturbine generator. Early investors included NASA, Ford Motor Company, and Sevin Rosen Funds (in April 1993, led by Benjamin M. Rosen).
Harold A. Rosen, Ben's older brother, was one of the first to notice the fledgling turbine company, after a friend working at NASA gave him a paper describing the technology. The Rosens acquired NoMac and renamed it Capstone. In addition, the Rosens founded a separate company, Rosen Motors, in May 1993 to develop a prototype turbine-flywheel automobile power train using the microturbine, but Rosen Motors closed in November 1997 because no major manufacturer was willing to invest further.
After Rosen Motors folded, Capstone continued to develop its microturbine as a source of electricity to facilitate distributed generation, spurred by investments from computer technology executives including Ben Rosen, Paul Allen, and Bill Gates, although Capstone did partner with Richard Hilleman to build the CMT-380 hybrid electric supercar, which debuted at the Los Angeles Auto Show in 2009. It uses the GTM chassis from Factory Five Racing. In distributed generation applications, microturbines often are part of combined heat and power installations, recovering exhaust heat to boost overall thermal efficiency.
On April 22, 2021, the company announced it was changing its name to Capstone Green Energy. In July 2021, the company provided the first hydrogen fueled microturbine to Austrian engineering and construction firm Innovametall Stahl-Und Metallbau to be used at their powder coating facility in Freistadt.
Capstone is a member of the United States Environmental Protection Agency's Combined Heat and Power Partnership, which is committed to improving the efficiency of the nation's energy infrastructure and reducing emissions of pollutants and greenhouse gases. A DQS-Certified ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 14001:2015 certified company, Capstone is headquartered in the Los Angeles area with sales and/or service centers in the United States, Latin America, Europe, Middle East and Asia.
From Wikipedia’s article on Capstone Turbine, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.2