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Most buildings buy their energy in two separate pieces. Electricity travels over wires from a distant power plant, while heat comes from a boiler in the basement. The arrangement is so familiar that few people question it, yet it throws away a surprising amount of fuel. Combined heat and power, usually shortened to CHP, takes a different route by producing both electricity and heat on site from one fuel source.
The idea rests on a basic fact of physics. Any engine that makes electricity also makes heat, and at a conventional power plant most of that heat escapes. A CHP system captures it and puts it to work warming water, heating rooms or running cooling equipment. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that grid power plus a separate boiler is about 50% to 55% efficient overall, while CHP systems typically reach between 65% and 80%, and some approach 90%.
Microturbines are one of several engines used in CHP. They work much like a small jet engine. Air is compressed, mixed with fuel and burned, and the hot gas spins a turbine linked to a generator. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, microturbines became a CHP option in the 1990s and can run on a wide range of fuels, including natural gas and hydrogen. They have few moving parts, low emissions and a small footprint, which makes them practical for hotels, offices and apartment buildings.
Interest in on-site power has grown as the electric grid struggles to keep up. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory found that new power projects completed in 2025 spent a median of more than five years moving from a connection request to commercial operation. Data center developers face multiyear waits for utility upgrades. Larger companies have noticed. Bloom Energy Corporation (NYSE: BE) sells fuel cells for on-site power and reports about 1.8 gigawatts installed at roughly 1,100 sites. Capstone Energy+, Inc. (NASDAQ: CEPL), the longtime microturbine maker formerly called Capstone Green Energy, returned to Nasdaq in July 2026 after shipping more than 10,600 units worldwide.
The newest public name in this space is far smaller. TurboGen Ltd. (NASDAQ: TRBG, TASE: TURB.TA), based in Petah Tikva, Israel, designs multifuel microturbine CHP systems for offices, residential buildings, hotels, data centers and sites without grid access. Its shares traded in Tel Aviv and began trading on Nasdaq the end of August. Customers will be able to buy a system with a service contract or sign a long-term Energy-as-a-Service deal, paying for the electricity and heat with little or no upfront cost.
The company released its first half-year results as a Nasdaq-listed business. Revenue was zero, as expected for a company still preparing its first installations. Operating loss more than doubled to $5.2 million from $2.3 million, driven by higher research spending, listing costs and share-based pay. Net loss narrowed 45% to $4.2 million, but that improvement came from $6.4 million in warrant and debt accounting gains rather than from the business itself.
Cash stood at $7.2 million on June 30, and an August private placement brought in another $5 million before costs. Operating activities used $2.7 million during the six months, up from $1.4 million a year earlier. That gives the company some breathing room, but spending usually climbs as a product moves from prototype to production, so further fundraising is a real possibility.
The operational news is more concrete. TurboGen has finished assembling its first TR8000, an 80 kW system built for large buildings and small data centers, and expects its first installations of units between 32 kW and 80 kW toward the end of 2026. On September 16th, it signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding with a U.S. operator of residential care and rehabilitation centers covering about 40 of its 80 kW units, subject to a final purchase agreement. A week earlier, it said former New York City Mayor Eric Adams would join its advisory board to help with U.S. introductions. In spite of all this, the company’s shares have fallen over 65% in the last month.
The coming months will show whether that memorandum turns into a signed order, whether the first units reach customers on time, and how long the current cash lasts.
