AssetCool is a UK deep-tech startup that makes metaphotonic coatings that are applied to existing overhead power lines by semi-autonomous robots. Those coatings cool the power lines and let them safely carry more current. The company says its technology offers grid operators up to 30% more line capacity, or up to 10% lower energy losses, and can be delivered in weeks, rather than the years typically required for conventional infrastructure upgrades.
“Our mission is to enable a grid that keeps pace with rising electricity demand through robotic grid upgrades and maintenance rather than years-long rebuild cycles,” says AssetCool’s co-founder, Dr. Niall Coogan. “By combining advanced robotics, proprietary photonic coatings, and deep utility expertise, AssetCool unlocks greater capacity from existing transmission infrastructure while building new high-performance conductors by pre-coat treatment in the factory.”
AssetCool is one of 10 finalists in the World Economic Forum UpLink Challenge “Powering Tomorrow: Electricity Systems,” announced September 16 at the Energy Forum in Geneva. (The Innovator’s editor-in-chief, a member of the Forum’s Future Council on Energy Technology Frontiers, was one of the contest judges.)
The UK startup operates in a nascent but increasingly crowded corner of climate and energy tech under the umbrella of “Advanced Grid Solutions,” comprising “Advanced Transmission Technologies” (ATTs), which physically upgrade grids in a retrofittable way, and “Grid-Enhancing Technologies” (GETs), which use hardware and software that utilize ambient conditions and accordingly squeeze more capacity out of the grid. Both methods encourage retrofitting and utilize existing infrastructure rather than building new transmission.
ATTs and GETs are needed because the global grid is unable to meet demand and the AI boom is exacerbating the situation. Data centers drew well under 15 GW of U.S. power as of early 2026, but forecasts point to that figure rising into the tens or low hundreds of gigawatts within a decade — a scale of new demand the existing grid, and the years-long timelines for building new transmission, were never designed to absorb.
Analysts at Goldman Sachs and the IEA both project global data-center electricity demand doubling or nearly doubling by 2030, and some U.S. grid operators, such as ERCOT, have fielded single-quarter large-load interconnection requests approaching the size of their entire existing peak demand.
That mismatch — explosive, geographically concentrated demand growth colliding with a permitting and construction timeline measured in years — is the market opportunity ATT companies like AssetCool are chasing: a way to add meaningful transmission capacity in months rather than the better part of a decade.
How AssetCool’s Technology Works
Conventional overhead conductors sag as they heat up — both from the current running through them and from ambient conditions — and utilities cap their loading well below physical limits to keep that sag within safe clearance distances. AssetCool’s coating reflects solar radiation and increases heat dissipation, lowering conductor temperature and, in turn, raising the safe carrying capacity of lines that are already strung between towers.
The company positions this as a third, complementary path alongside the two dominant approaches to grid capacity expansion: full reconductoring (replacing the physical cable, a heavy, slow, and costly intervention) and dynamic line rating, or DLR (software and sensors that adjust a line’s rated capacity in real time based on weather, without any physical change to the line).
Coogan, who co-founded AssetCool during his Ph.D. research at the University of Manchester’s Power Network Centre, calls the company’s approach “Static Line Uprating (SLU)” — a permanent, physical increase in a line’s baseline rating, deployable in weeks rather than the 7–12 years a new transmission line typically takes to permit and build.
Competitive Landscape
AssetCool describes rival GETs less as competitors than as complementary tools — its coatings can, in principle, be layered with High-Temperature Low-Sag (HTLS) conductors or DLR systems on the same line to stack capacity gains. A CIGRE (International Council on Large Electric Systems) paper about the benefits of combining several GETs and ATTs was recently published by Coogan and the AssetCool team.
The UK startup’s two direct competitors are both Italian: Prysmian, a Milan-based cable/wire giant, has developed a coating applied to overhead conductors to dissipate heat, increase ampacity, and lower operating temperature — deployed via a robotics cleaning-then-coating system, directly analogous to AssetCool’s robotics offering. De Angeli Prodotti, a Padua-based conductor manufacturer, has developed high-emissivity technical coatings for passive cooling of overhead conductors, aimed at reducing operating temperature and increasing ampacity — a solution that can be compared to coating power lines in the factory, prior to installation, like AssetCool’s work with conductor manufacturers.
AssetCool says its differentiator is that its robotics platform is years ahead of the competition — currently power lines need to be turned off, and a linesman is needed when coatings are applied. However, the UK startup says its technology has evolved to a point where it can soon fly a drone in to land on a congested circuit, apply the coating, and let a utility immediately benefit from the increased capacity, all without ever having to turn off the power.
Traction to Date
The company, which has so far raised $18 million, has conducted over 15 pilots and projects around the world. The biggest project to date using its cooling technology to increase capacity of existing lines, is planned for October with a utility on the West Coast of the United States. The company sees the U.S. market as a key driver of AssetCool’s growth because of the sheer demand from utilities to meet exponential load growth emerging from AI.
The company has gained traction in other parts of the world since its first greenfield application was launched in 2021 in Saudi Arabia. Its first robot-based retrofit project, completed in 2024, was for Berkshire Hathaway’s AltaLink in Alberta, Canada. The company’s largest project to date s using its technology for noise reduction is in the UK. As the voltage carried by a power line increases, so can the level of noise it generates, which is enhanced by a moist environment (a phenomenon called “corona noise” or “corona discharge”), potentially leading to complaints from nearby communities and challenges in meeting the grid code and other regulatory noise limits. AssetCool says its coating helps reduce this noise, with a dedicated super-hydrophilic coating that provides utilities with a more cost-effective way to increase line capacity while remaining compliant with noise regulations.
AssetCool is accelerating its expansion across Asia through a strategic agreement signed in August with APAR Industries, a leading global manufacturer of aluminum and alloy conductors. India is building a large number of new greenfield power facilities. Through its licensing agreement with APAR, AssetCool is aiming to have its coating technology applied to the new high-temperature advanced conductors being sold into the Indian market. This is not the only market where the company is working with conductor manufacturers. Several coating machines will be delivered to international traditional and HTLS conductor manufacturers in 2027, says the company.
In addition to being named a finalist in the UpLink Challenge this year, AssetCool has been repeatedly recognized for its innovation and impact in the energy sector.
In 2025, the company was named Free Electrons Startup of the Year. This year, AssetCool was selected as one of 10 startups to join the Australian EnergyLab’s 2026 Energy Scaleup Program and the Dominion Energy Innovation Center Accelerate program. AssetCool also won the Grid and Power category at the 2026 Data Center World Innovation Challenge powered by ABB. The competition brought together 24 startups to present technologies addressing some of the most pressing challenges facing the data center industry, with AssetCool recognized for the potential of its technology to unlock additional capacity from existing electricity infrastructure.
