Seatrec, Inc.
Vista, California JPL spin-off making infiniTE profiling floats that harvest ocean thermal energy; Navy PSAP version won a $30.8M APFIT award in 2026.
Seatrec, Inc. is a US developer and manufacturer of subsea drones and power systems that generate electricity from temperature differences in the ocean. Dr. Yi Chao, a former NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory scientist, founded and incorporated the company in 2016 to commercialise thermal energy harvesting technology that originated at JPL and Caltech. LinkedIn places its headquarters at 1340 Specialty Drive, Suite I, Vista, California, and lists 2-10 employees. Seatrec develops its products with private investment, government grants and industry contracts.
The technology uses phase change materials that expand when they melt in warm surface water and contract when they freeze at depth. In Seatrec's solid-to-liquid design, the expansion pressurises hydraulic oil that drives a generator and charges the vehicle's batteries on every dive cycle. The concept dates to Henry Stommel's 1989 vision of ocean-powered floats. A JPL prototype, SOLO-TREC, deployed on 30 November 2009, became the first underwater vehicle powered solely by ocean temperature differences and completed more than 1,000 profiles to 500 m. Seatrec and JPL hold patents including the Phase Change Material Thermal Power Generator (US7987674 and US8689556) and Environmental Thermal Energy Conversion (US10443581, US10989178 and AU2017355404).
Seatrec's first commercial product, released in 2019, was the SL1 thermal engine, paired with a Sea-Bird Navis float as the Navis SL-1. The SL1 module is 153.7 cm long and 17.3 cm in diameter, weighs 30.2 kg in air, is neutrally buoyant, works to 1,000 m and generates about 8 kJ (2.2 Wh) per cycle; twin SL1s were demonstrated at 1,000 m in February 2020. A larger SLG engine for underwater gliders, producing about 20 kJ per cycle, was also announced.
Its current product, launched in 2023, is the infiniTE float, a vertically integrated autonomous profiling float with built-in energy harvesting. The baseline version carries a CTD sensor and profiles up to three or four times a day to 1,000 m without shortening mission life, and a 2,000 m version is offered on request. Because power is replenished at sea, infiniTE can carry demanding sensors. A hydrophone float built with the Naval Postgraduate School uses an Ocean Sonics icListen RB9 for passive acoustic and marine mammal monitoring. An echosounder version for seafloor mapping, inspired by the NEMO project, integrates single-beam echosounders with Airmar, Innomar, the University of New Hampshire and Scripps. Seatrec has deployed floats off Destin, Florida and Kona, Hawaii, including a hydrophone float in the Gulf of Mexico, and one float has passed 1,000 profiles. After the infiniTE launch the company signed several six-figure purchase orders with university researchers and the US Navy.
Seatrec's R&D work includes an ONR Phase II SBIR on ocean thermal energy harvesting, a DARPA Direct-to-Phase II SBIR for a long-endurance, fast-profiling float, an ONR STTR on thermal power for Arctic sensors, and a Schmidt Marine Technology Partners project on a thermally powered underwater glider. It also has a NOAA grant for soundscape monitoring. Larger moored profilers and liquid-to-gas systems are being developed to charge propeller-driven AUVs and power polar sensors. Seatrec also offers engineering services for underwater rechargeable power systems.
In July 2026 the US Department of War selected Seatrec for a USD 30.8 million award under the APFIT programme to produce its Persistent Subsea Autonomous Profiler (PSAP). PSAP is an attritable, defence version of the infiniTE float that provides persistent undersea domain awareness, and it was demonstrated with the Naval Postgraduate School and backed by Commander, Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command. Low-rate initial production is starting at Seatrec's California facility, with deliveries from late 2026 and a planned full-rate production facility in Mississippi. Seatrec's investors include Pasadena Angels, which led a USD 970,000 seed round in January 2020, the LACI Impact Fund, Tech Coast Angels, Frontier Angels, Breakout Labs, SeaAhead and Sunstone Management. In 2024 the company also closed a USD 1 million state-guaranteed loan through American Lending Center.
Primary type & automation activities this supplier delivers:
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Contact Seatrec, Inc.
WEBSITE
https://seatrec.com/PHONE
+1 626 386 5988HEADQUARTERS
United States
Company Facts
Founded
2016
Primary Role
Manufacturer
Company Size
-
Primary Region
North America
Annual Sales
-
Funding Stage
Early-Stage VC
Funding Total
-
Keywords
- Seatrec
- Inc.
- ocean thermal energy harvesting
- profiling float
- infiniTE
- PSAP
- phase change material
- Argo float
- hydrophone float
- echosounder float
- underwater recharging
- persistent undersea monitoring
- Manufacturer
- Component Supplier
- Unmanned Marine Vehicle
- Power & Energy
- AUV
- Subsea
- Education & Research
- Defense & Security
