Beyond combustion: Long Island's first hydrogen-powered linear generator and the fuel-flexible answer to the dispatchable emissions-free resource problem

About this episode

The episode discusses the deployment of Long Island's first hydrogen-powered linear generator and its implications for clean energy generation.

Utilities are under pressure to deliver generation that is dispatchable, affordable, and clean enough to satisfy increasingly stringent environmental rules, notoriously hard to do in one asset. As renewables grow, the gas turbines and engines that have historically filled the gap come with a NOx problem, a CO2 problem, or both. Hydrogen offers a path through, but the supply isn't there yet. So what do you build today? Host Bridget van Dorsten is joined by Shannon Miller, CEO of Mainspring Energy, and Will Hazelip of National Grid Ventures, to dig into a technology most listeners haven't heard of and the first commercial hydrogen-powered deployment of it. Mainspring's 250-kilowatt linear generator is being installed at National Grid's 1,500 MW North Port facility on Long Island, in partnership with NYSERDA, the Long Island Power Authority, and Stony Brook University. Shannon explains how Mainspring redesigned the generator using the power electronics that drive solar inverters, batteries and EVs, replacing mechanical systems with software, eliminating the flame, and operating at temperatures low enough to take NOx out of the equation. An adaptive pressure cycle…

People in this episode

Host: Bridget van Dorsten

Guest: Shannon Miller

Topics covered

• hydrogen technology
• dispatchable energy
• clean energy solutions
• renewable energy
• linear generator
• emissions reduction

Keywords

• hydrogen
• linear generator
• dispatchable
• clean energy
• Mainspring Energy
• National Grid
• renewables
• NOx
• CO2

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Mainspring Energy, National Grid Ventures, NYSERDA, Long Island Power Authority, Stony Brook University

Places: Long Island, North Port

More episodes of Interchange Recharged

• The grid's missing operating system: Why a $100,000 AI controller could defer trillions in hardware and why utilities won't buy it · June 2, 2026 · 44 min
• The grid's immune system is retiring: Synchronous condensers, AI data centers and the physics gap that software alone can't close · May 19, 2026 · 1h 2m
• The electrolyzer reckoning: Can disciplined product development deliver on green hydrogen's promise before the survivors run out of runway? · April 21, 2026 · 1h 0m
• Flexibility as a service: Can Octopus's acquisition of Uplight finally make US residential VPPs work? · April 7, 2026 · 45 min
• The muscle we forgot: SMRs, hyperscalers, and why this nuclear renaissance might actually be different · March 24, 2026 · 56 min
• The grid nobody planned for: public power, hyperscalers and the race to rewire America for the AI age · March 10, 2026 · 1h 5m