WEST OLIVE, MI – Alternative energy. This phrase often brings to mind images of large wind farms or expansive solar arrays. Not for long. Holland-based startup company Synergy Power LLC has created a device about the size of a kitchen table that has the design intent to power an entire family’s home with little more than hot and cold water. The SynergineTM is a patent protected, zero emissions energy production system that has the potential to disrupt current methods of power generation, including existing alternative energy devices.
Emil Ureel, founder of Synergy Power LLC, explains “I began working on this concept several years ago because I knew there had to be a more cost-effective way to create reliable, emission free power.” The result of Ureel’s pragmatism is an invention that is starting to garner attention from other engineers, industry experts, and investors. Most recently, Synergy Power LLC, with the help of ACRE AgTech, applied for and was awarded $10,000 worth of services through the Business Accelerator Fund (BAF). ACRE AgTech is a non-profit corporation based in West Olive that works with start-up companies to help them launch their businesses. Doug Huesdash, Business Development Manager for ACRE, explains “The market opportunities for the latest fully-scaled prototype, which has been dubbed the SynergineTM, are numerous, including residential, industrial, agricultural, and humanitarian.”
The BAF grant will pay for the installation of Ureel’s first fully operational test unit at a residential site in West Olive this fall. The SynergineTM will be connected to a wood boiler that currently provides heat and hot water to the landowner’s home-based machine shop. Routing that hot water through the SynergineTM will provide continuous power to the shop, and in some cases, could support all of a building’s power needs. According to Huesdash, “At this time, our targeted path to commercialization is the wood boiler furnace market. Many people that buy wood boilers want to be off-grid. They want to be self-reliant. The SynergineTM will allow them to not only heat their homes, but also generate reliable electricity.”
Synergy Power LLC and ACRE AgTech worked closely with staff at Lakeshore Advantage to prepare the application for the BAF grant. The BAF is administered by Lakeshore Advantage through their Surge program and is supported by a partnership between the Small Business Development Center and the Michigan Economic Development Corporation to support small startup businesses. ACRE AgTech has worked side by side with Ureel since January of 2016 to achieve numerous significant milestones which include securing Synergy Power’s first private investor, building the scaled SynergineTM prototype, and securing grant funding for legal costs through Varnum Law’s MiSpringboard program.
ACRE AgTech has been providing agtech connections and resources to entrepreneurs in Ottawa County and across Michigan since December, 2014. For more information about ACRE AgTech, please visit our website, www.acreagtech.com, or contact us at 616-994-4745 or info@acreagtech.com.