Hyliion’s KARNO Power Module has been named the 2026 Most Valuable Product in Consulting-Specifying Engineer’s Product of the Year program. Hyliion said the KARNO entry received the highest overall vote total across the program’s six categories, a signal that consulting and specifying engineers are paying close attention to on-site generation options as data center power planning gets tighter.
The company describes KARNO as a fuel-flexible linear generator intended to provide on-site prime power and reduce reliance on the utility grid. Hyliion offers the system in a 200 kW configuration as well as a larger multi-megawatt “system footprint,” with multiple modules designed to be coupled together as load grows. For data center electrical teams, one practical detail stands out: KARNO’s native output is 800 VDC, which Hyliion ties to “emerging architectures” for next-generation AI data centers.
Hyliion also highlights fuel flexibility as a core design attribute. The KARNO Power Module is designed to operate on more than 20 fuel sources, including natural gas, diesel, propane, hydrogen, and JP8. That kind of multi-fuel capability matters most in deployments where permitting, local fuel availability, and resiliency planning drive the architecture as much as kW capacity does.
On commercialization, Hyliion said it is deploying early units in data center, defense, and prime power applications ahead of broader commercial availability in 2027. The company also said it has received confirmation from the Environmental Protection Agency supporting KARNO deployment across all 50 states and has completed all non-recurring UL certification testing.
Separately, Hyliion said the U.S. Navy’s Office of Naval Research, in partnership with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, selected the USX-1 Defiant as a candidate test vessel for evaluating KARNO technology in unmanned autonomous surface vessel applications.
“The CSE community understands the real-world demands of power generation, from lifecycle economics and reliability to permitting and emissions,” said Thomas Healy, founder and CEO of Hyliion.
Hyliion is headquartered in Austin, Texas, with R&D in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Source: Hyliion
