International energy company moves HQ to Fort Collins

FORT COLLINS — Husk Power Systems Inc., a rural distributed utility company, is relocating its headquarters to Fort Collins and has closed on a $20 million financing round.

The company is now located at the Colorado State University Powerhouse Energy Campus.

Husk Power Systems operates more than 75 mini-grids in Asia and Africa.

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The company builds decentralized power plants and has distribution networks in India and Tanzania. Its system uses solar energy during the day and batteries and a biomass system at night. The biomass system uses rice byproducts to create energy. Each power plant serves about 300 customers and has a “pay-as-you-go” service model. Customers can pay just for the energy they use, and when they use solar during the day the costs are less than at night, when the rice-husk power comes online.

Over the next four years, Husk Power Systems said it plans to add more than 300 mini-grids in India and Tanzania. It also plans to deploy 15 megawatts of 100 percent renewable energy assets, which would eliminate 15,000 tons per year of carbon dioxide. The new mini-grids would provide power to 100,000 customers who previously did not have utility access.

The decision to be located at CSU will place Husk Power Systems in the heart of Fort Collins’ innovation and research. In 2015, the Smithsonian Institution named the city a “place of invention.”

“The goal of opening a new office here in Fort Collins is to attract top talent and do research in collaboration with the Energy Institute,” said Manoj Sinha, chief executive and co-founder of Husk Power Systems, in a prepared statement. “There really isn’t another place like it that brings such a wide range of experts in diverse disciplines — from technology to psychology — around energy.”

Fort Collins marks the company’s first North American headquarters. Husk Power Systems also has offices in India and Tanzania. Sinha told BizWest that the company has 200 employees globally, and plans to add 10 employees to the Fort Collins office, including a chief financial officer and chief technology officer.

The company received a $20 million equity investment by Shell Technology Ventures LLC, Swedfund International and ENGIE Rassembleurs d’Energies.