The following is a press release from Brillouin Energy:
Greg Knight and Chester Aldridge partner to lead breakthrough clean energy electric heating system to commercialization.
Brillouin Energy begins commercialization of pulsed catalyst electric heating system
BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA, USA, February 13, 2023 /EINPresswire.com/ — Brillouin Energy Corp.
(https://brillouinenergy.com) announced today that Senior Executives Greg Knight and Chester
Aldridge have begun a long term executive level advisory engagement to actively guide
leadership of Brillouin Energy Corp.’s next stage of development: Rapid commercialization of its
patented clean energy electric heating system, and build-out of the Company’s pilot
manufacturing facility.
Greg Knight has over 20 years of business and operations experience in the photovoltaic (PV),
silicon carbide, electric vehicle (EV) and power electronics markets in both leadership positions
and as a strategic consultant. He is currently the Chief Operating Officer at Hardinge, Inc., a
leading manufacturer of high-precision grinding, turning and milling equipment.
Prior to his current role, Mr. Knight most recently served as the President and Chief Executive
Officer of GT Advanced Technologies (GTAT), a producer of silicon carbide crystal materials for
rapidly expanding markets such as EV, PV and power electronics. As CEO of GTAT, Mr. Knight
successfully transformed the company from a capital equipment provider to a much larger and
more profitable downstream manufacturer of advanced materials including silicon carbide.
GTAT was acquired by Onsemi in October 2021 for $415 million in cash.
Mr. Knight has served on multiple Boards of Directors of both private and public companies. He
currently serves on the Board of Hardinge, a multi-national machine tool builder, and Ideal
Power (NASDAQ: IPWR), a pioneer in the development of highly efficient bi-directional power
switches. Prior to his business career, Mr. Knight graduated from the Cornell University ROTC
program and served five years in the U.S. Navy as a Chemistry / Radiological Controls Officer,
including completing a formal engineering education from the Naval Nuclear Power School.
“I have monitored Brillouin Energy’s technical progress for many years”, said Greg Knight. “I first
met them 12 years ago when they were doing the hard science work around understanding the
underlying physics of their technology and developing their ability to initiate and control their
breakthrough electric heat generation system. We are very excited that Brillouin Energy has
recently hit major technology milestones and has demonstrated a clear path to bring their
technology to market. Brillouin Energy has passed the proof of concept stage and is now moving
into system commercialization where the company fits perfectly with my strength in scaling
manufacturing. I am highly confident we can help drive their commercialization process at a
rapid pace”.
Chester Aldridge is Founder, Chairman and CEO of US Equity Holdings. Mr. Aldridge incubates,
finances and manages numerous ventures in the fields of renewable energy and advanced
materials, as well as healthcare, software and entertainment. Mr. Aldridge has more than 25
years of experience in founding, financing and operating businesses, ranging from start-ups to
multi-million-dollar publicly traded companies. This has included prior work collaborating
closely with Mr. Knight as a CEO or Director of his ventures.
“I am excited that Greg Knight recently informed me of Brillouin Energy hitting key technology
development and performance milestones, and that they are now ready to move ahead to
become a full-scale manufacturer of their clean energy electric heating systems for a wide range
of industrial, commercial, and home heating markets. This has Greg and I very excited to work
together again, now with Brillouin Energy’s technology and senior management team, to create
what promises to be tremendous value for its shareholders”, said Chester Aldridge.
Brillouin Energy was founded with the knowledge that there is a better way to generate heat
from electricity. For decades there have been occasional observations of heat generation in
natural and experimental systems, which could not possibly generate their observed level of
thermal outputs when viewed through the traditional lens of electrical resistance heating.
Brillouin Energy made its mission to understand the physical mechanism behind these observed
but unexplained excess thermal outputs. Many others have observed, documented and studied
this phenomenon, but Brillouin Energy is the first to truly understand the underlying physics of
“electron capture” and apply it to their commercializable clean energy electric heating systems.
Brillouin Energy increases the effective efficiency of electricity based heating by using electrons
in a way that previously has not been understood. The Company has developed its “controlled
electron capture” technology to greatly increase the thermal output from its highly controlled
pulsed electric input. Brillouin Energy pulses electrons through a conductor, but that conductor
is also a catalyst for a reaction which unleashes far more energy than possible by normal
resistive heating. The net effect of using electrons in this controlled electron capture reaction
versus heating by resistive heating methods creates a thermal energy output that is multiples of
the electric energy input. This patented discovery, which is now being utilized in Brillouin
Energy’s first commercial clean energy electric heating system, has been repeated and perfected
by the Company to a point where it is ready for full commercialization.
“The next steps for the company are to move into a state-of-the-art lab and manufacturing space
to enable the technical team to further push the boundaries of their technology. The facility will
be outfitted with a pilot production line to not only accelerate the technical innovations through
increased cycles of learning, but also to create a robust and high-yielding manufacturing process
for Brillouin Energy’s electric heating systems”, said Greg Knight.
The Company’s breakthrough electric heating system is an on-demand, clean energy system with
no emissions or harmful byproducts of any kind. Brillouin Energy’s first commercial efforts are
focused on supplying original equipment manufacturers in the hot water heater, steam boiler
and hydronic (radiant) heater markets. The energy generated from its patented heating system
is produced at a fraction of the cost of any comparable heating technology, as the required
electrical energy inputs are greatly reduced for a given thermal power output. These are the
next steps in a Brillouin Energy strategy to help reduce the energy inputs necessary to power the
world, and to accelerate the move toward a carbon-free energy future.
Carl Page, Founder of the Anthropocene Institute, stated “I am dedicated to bringing today’s new
technology from the lab to the market where it can broadly improve productivity. I admire
Robert Godes and the Brillouin Energy team’s steadfast determination to bring practical new
clean energy products to market that create great value in short order. Greg Knight and Chester
Aldridge are well suited to fully commercialize Brillouin Energy’s recent technology development
successes.”
About Brillouin Energy Corp. (https://brillouinenergy.com)
Brillouin Energy is a clean technology company based in Berkeley, California, USA. The company
has developed its breakthrough, patented, clean energy electric heating systems in collaboration
with former senior scientists at SRI International, and other experts. The Company’s electric
heating systems are designed to produce very-low-cost, on-demand, completely clean thermal
energy for multiple industrial, commercial and home water heating, space heating, process
heating, and steam generation markets.
For further information about Brillouin Energy, contact David Firshein, CFO of Brillouin Energy
Corp. at +1-415-419-6429 or [email protected].
