March 2nd, 2026
USEA Power Sector Podcast — Episode 273
Speed to Steam
AtmosZero co-founder and CEO Addison Stark joined journalist Herman K. Trabish on the USEA Power Sector Podcast to talk through what Boiler 2.0 actually does, why efficiency — not fuel choice — is the real story, and what a new industry report says about the economic upside of getting there.
The conversation was the second in a two-part series on electrifying manufacturing, timed to the release of Powering American Industry: The Economic Opportunity of Industrial Electrification, a new report from the Renewable Thermal Collaborative and the Industrial Heat Pump Alliance, produced by Greenline Insights. Stark used the report as a jumping-off point to explain how Boiler 2.0 fits into the bigger picture of American manufacturing competitiveness.
A modular electric steam generator, not a science project
Steam still drives roughly half of all industrial heat, and Stark was clear that AtmosZero isn't trying to replace that with something exotic. Boiler 2.0 is a modular electric steam generator built to require far less electrical infrastructure than resistance heating and far less capital than most competing heat pump systems. The distinction that matters most: a standard resistance boiler needs one unit of electricity for every unit of steam it produces. Boiler 2.0's vapor-compression cycle gets two units of steam out of a single unit of electricity in.
The fuel isn't the point — productivity is
Stark pushed back on framing this as a gas-versus-electricity debate. In his view, the manufacturers that win over the next few decades will be the ones getting the most output from every megawatt hour, every molecule of fuel, every grid connection, and every dollar of capital they spend. For a plant with cheap, abundant natural gas and a combustion boiler that's running fine, sticking with gas can be the rational call. Electrification earns its place when it delivers better economics, better productivity, or clearer strategic value — not by default.
That framing shapes where Boiler 2.0 is built to compete. Heat pumps are best suited to steam delivered up to roughly 200°C (450°F), which covers the majority of industrial steam demand — food and beverage production, chemical separations, pulp and paper, and building heat, especially in older facilities running legacy steam systems. Above that range, resistive storage technologies are better suited to the job.
Figures from Powering American Industry, Renewable Thermal Collaborative and Industrial Heat Pump Alliance, 2026.
Built for the manufacturers project finance skips
About 65% of U.S. manufacturing facilities carry a thermal load under 10 megawatts — too small for the kind of bespoke, project-financed engineering that larger resistive-storage systems are designed around. That's the gap AtmosZero built for. Boiler 2.0 is factory-built in Loveland, Colorado, on a fully domestic supply chain, at a 1-megawatt building block sized for smaller manufacturers, and designed to install the way a traditional packaged combustion boiler always has: as a drop-in unit, not a custom project. Stark's phrase for it: speed to steam.
Growth in electricity demand doesn't have to be a zero-sum game
Herman Trabish raised a fair concern: if industrial electrification scales up at the same time AI infrastructure is pulling hard on the grid, doesn't that strain the system further? Stark's answer was direct — yes, electrifying industrial heat will add real demand, and that growth curve should be steep, because it reflects a broader investment in productivity. The offsetting factor is efficiency: a solution that turns one unit of electricity into two units of steam expands what the existing grid, at both the distribution and transmission level, can support. Boiler 2.0 was also engineered to avoid triggering major transformer or on-site electrical upgrades, keeping the capital side of that equation in check too.
The countries that lead in the 21st-century economy won't be the ones that generate the most energy. They'll be the ones that create the most value from it.
A policy view built on not needing policy
Stark, who previously worked at ARPA-E and the Bipartisan Policy Center, said AtmosZero was built assuming zero dollars of federal support on commercial projects, and the company has never taken on a project underwritten by a grant. His view on what actually helps manufacturers move forward: reliable infrastructure, competitive electricity prices, workforce development, domestic manufacturing capacity, and continued investment in industrial innovation — not another subsidy cycle. He also pointed to a longer-term opportunity for U.S.-manufactured electrified steam equipment: exporting it to countries without America's access to low-cost natural gas.
Listen to the full episode on the USEA Power Sector Podcast
About the report
Powering American Industry: The Economic Opportunity of Industrial Electrification was produced by Greenline Insights for the Renewable Thermal Collaborative and the Industrial Heat Pump Alliance. Read the full report.