The All Power Labs story begins not with a corporate mandate, but with a simple challenge: What if the waste we discard is not an end, but a resource for empowerment?
Founded in 2008, our journey started in the dynamic collaborative workshop known as the Shipyard, a place dedicated to radical tinkering and making in Berkeley, California. Under the visionary guidance of our founder, Jim Mason, All Power Labs grew out of a series of exploratory projects in energy, art, self-sufficiency and open innovation. Mason’s deep technical curiosity and practical experience in off-grid living convinced him that small-scale, decentralized waste-to-energy was not only possible but necessary. The goal was to lower the complexity and cost of gasification, enabling individuals and communities to experiment with local power. This required an environment that prioritized experimentation and open collaboration, which the Shipyard provided perfectly. Jim collaborated from the start with Bear Kaufmann on the engineering aspects and in 2012 brought in Alejandro Abalos for the corporate management, as things took off fast!
Our defining, open-source DNA was forged in this era.
We launched the GEK (Gasifier Experimenters Kit), an open-source engineering achievement that allowed people from all walks of life to engage with and improve the technology.
The global community of “GEK experimenters” provided the rugged, real-world data needed for our next major step: the development of the fully automated, 20kW Power Pallet.
With this product, we proved that decentralized power from local agricultural waste was not a theory, but a deployable solution for off-grid resilience and sustainable development.
Throughout the 2010s, our systems were deployed in some of the world’s most demanding environments, transforming massive waste streams into productive energy. But our vision grew. We recognized that beyond renewable energy, our systems were unique factories for activated carbon—a powerful environmental remediation and climate mitigation tool. Mason and our engineering team spent years refining the technology not only for electricity but for optimal biocarbons co-production, unlocking a vital circular economy tool.
Today, All Power Labs is leading the transition from a niche solution to industrial-grade infrastructure. We are focused on high-fidelity, grid-tied systems and large-scale biochar co-production, expanding our technology to power industrial facilities and process massive waste volumes for a fully circular economy. We are bringing the spirit of the Shipyard to a global stage, ensuring that practical engineering can solve our most critical energy and climate challenges.
Our history is a foundation, but our future is defined by a deep belief that decentralized, waste-to-resource energy can change the world.