Firm, Dispatchable Power
The burner is designed to deliver constant output on demand — the firm, around-the-clock power a data center or city needs.
Firm means always available
Firm power is capacity you can count on at any hour, independent of weather or time of day. The burner is built for this: it runs in steady state with fuel fed continuously and no intrinsic pulse limit. Unlike variable renewables, its availability does not depend on external conditions — it depends on the machine running, which the modular and redundant design is meant to keep high.
Why data centers need firm power
- Compute load is high and roughly constant around the clock
- Reliability requirements are stringent — outages are costly to operations
- On-site firm generation reduces dependence on congested transmission
- A flat load is the easiest possible duty for a steady-state generator
Dispatchable within a range
Beyond simply being firm, the output can be adjusted within a design band to track the load — see load following. Combined with grid interconnection, this makes the burner a dispatchable resource: it can hold a setpoint, respond to load changes, and provide backup. That controllability is a direct benefit of a fuel-fed, steady-state machine over intermittent sources.
No economic claim is made here — firmness and dispatchability are described as physical operating characteristics. And as with the whole burner program, they are properties of the design and simulation study to be demonstrated by the test unit around 2032, not yet proven in hardware.