⚡Heron Power Raises $140M to Commercialize Solid-State Transformers for Data Centers

Your data center's power gear is about to shrink

Heron Power just raised $140 million to commercialize solid-state transformers, and the pitch is simple: ditch the copper and steel box and replace it with power electronics. Traditional transformers are big, heavy, and miserable to swap out. Solid-state versions pair a much smaller magnetic core with high-power semiconductors, so they can take over jobs that currently need separate rectifiers and inverters. If you're building or running data centers, this matters right now. The companies in this space are focused on data centers first, because server racks need precise, controllable power and floor space is expensive. A single unit could replace a transformer and rectifier chain, and that's fewer components to buy, cool, and maintain. Solar operators and grid battery projects are the other obvious targets. The numbers so far are promising but early. A one-megawatt solid-state transformer was tested in August at 98% efficiency, versus roughly 96% for a conventional transformer and rectifier combined. The prototype runs at about 15,000 volts, and getting to higher grid voltages will need more engineering. Heron plans batch tests with 10 megawatt-hours of batteries and a pilot with a nearby solar farm. Watch the voltage question. Utilities will not trust this at transmission scale until the high-voltage engineering is proven.