From waste heat to power: TEGnology has cracked a scalable, profitable solution

The Danish deep-tech company TEGnology says it has found the “recipe” to replace those materials making heat-to-power scalable at last.

“The industry’s been locked in by rare materials. We’ve developed a material combination and a process that removes that bottleneck. It may sound simple, but it took many years of materials research, testing, and development,” says Hao Yin, CEO of TEGnology.

The story starts long before the commercial breakthrough

Hao Yin came to Denmark in 2008 to pursue a PhD at Aarhus University and joined TEGnology in 2012 - a company built on global patents for thermoelectric energy materials.

Back then, transportation was the big bet: converting exhaust heat into electricity. As EVs took off, that market faded and the project was put on ice.

“There wasn’t a clear market or investors, but I still believed strongly in the technology’s potential. So I kept going, and after a few years with limited development and resources, I was ready to pivot to new markets,” Hao Yin explains.

Innovation projects as critical building blocks

Today, TEGnology develops and sells thermoelectric, battery-free generators that harvest heat through thermoelectric generators (TEGs). Power is produced by exploiting the temperature difference between a hot surface and ambient air, and it’s delivered to sensors and small devices - no batteries, no cables.

The DIMAS innovation project, run in collaboration with and facilitated by Energy Cluster Denmark, later became part of the foundation for TEGnology’s business development. The project delivered a more powerful prototype while shifting focus toward partnerships with leading Danish industrial companies and targeted testing for the process industries, district heating, and other product development efforts.

“DIMAS paved the way for the prototype that now underpins our product. We built a more efficient generator and showed how waste heat from pipes and tanks can power sensors—again, without batteries or cables. The result is a solution that makes digital monitoring more sustainable, cost-effective, and reliable,” says Hao Yin.

TEGnology has integrated the solution in pharma—among other things via SensEver® HSI, a self-powered, battery-free “hot surface” indicator with wireless monitoring—which Hao describes as a door-opener for digitalization in the sector. He highlights the scalability: these generators can run for years with no service.

The solution is also being adapted for SensEver®-Alpha products mounted on district-heating pipes to power wireless sensors for underground pipe networks. That means fewer battery swaps, lower environmental impact, and simpler operations—especially in places with thousands of underground chambers and hazardous work environments that make maintenance expensive.

Funding and time have been decisive

Since 2018, TEGnology has participated in more than 10 projects that collectively brought the company to where it is today.

“Each project has been a building block on a long journey,” says Hao Yin, pointing to a wide range of funding programs and partners that helped along the way:

“That includes Horizon 2020, Eurostars, EUDP, the Innovation Fund, EIT, CLEAN, and Energy Cluster Denmark, as well as grants from other Danish authorities. Hard tech takes time. The most important innovations require years of development and patient capital,” Hao says, adding that startups could really use more long-term funding programs.

Development, manufacturing, supply chain, and commercialization of a new generation of thermoelectric generators are now facing a promising future. The growing scarcity of raw materials creates new challenges for innovators like TEGnology. Through in-house research and a series of R&D projects, the company has built a leading position in the field, and Hao Yin is frequently invited to speak by companies, GTS institutes, and universities.

Next step: more markets

As TEGnology moves into the next phase, its technology will expand beyond district heating and process industries to new use cases where stable, efficient power can unlock significant value.

Examples include boosting solar performance with thermoelectric modules, recovering energy from industrial hot water, and tapping low-temperature waste heat in data centers. Over time, the technology could also enable wearables and med-tech devices that use body heat as an energy source.

“Our generator is an enabling technology across sectors—as long as there’s a temperature difference, we can generate power,” Hao says.

Facts about TEGnology

• The team has grown from one person in 2018 to about 10 people in 2025, now working globally and across sectors.
• The company is setting up production of its own TEG components, securing control over quality, supply chain, and manufacturing scalability.
• SensEver®-Alpha solutions are in operation in Sweden, where strategic partner Wioniq supplies sensor systems for temperature and leakage monitoring in district-heating chambers—now powered by TEGnology. Several thousand units are planned, with rollouts being considered in Hamburg and Beijing.

Sales are expected to reach around €1 million next year, with a target of positive cash flow in 2027.