How a Norwegian start-up rethinks survival in the cold

Has a Norwegian start-up found the holy grail of portable heating?

The answer, if one asks Euroheater’s founder and chief executive Carl Ronny Olsen, is unambiguous.

- We deliver a system of tactical portable heating and tactical batteries in an ecosystem that creates heat and power and prevents hypothermia. That did not exist before. We have changed how defence approaches mobile heating, he says.

We have changed how defence approaches mobile heating

Carl Ronny Olsen, CEO and founder, Euroheater

In February, the start-up found itself listed alongside some of Europe’s largest defence primes, including Rheinmetall and Leonardo.

StartUs Insights named Euroheater among fifteen European defence companies to watch, alongside Sweden’s Nordic Air Defence and Finland’s Crown Cyber Defence.

For a four-person company, the effect was immediate.

- The list made us highly visible. It has been seen globally, and things started moving quickly, Olsen says.

Arctic conditions

Olsen’s confidence is rooted in experience.

Based in Oslo, he previously served in the Norwegian armed forces and has led multiple expeditions in Arctic conditions. He understands both the operational importance of heat and the risks of getting it wrong.

The idea for Euroheater dates back to 2019, during an expedition to Iceland when his team was stranded in a severe storm.

By 2023, the first mobile heater had been developed, and the company was established to deliver robust, portable heating systems for defence, emergency response and professional users across Europe.

- Initially, we expected to use the heaters ourselves, not supply defence forces, Olsen says.

In February 2024, Euroheater demonstrated its products publicly for the first time at a defence exhibition in Germany. Two years on, the company reports activity in twenty-one NATO countries and is beginning to expand into Australia, Japan and India.

- What began as a hobby project has become a tactical heating and power capability for NATO, Olsen says.

- We see significant potential in Europe’s rearmament. Heat is a basic requirement.

Since developing its first heater, the company has expanded its portfolio to include battery systems for Arctic environments with temperatures down to minus 45 degrees.

Production of batteries takes place in Oslo, while heater manufacturing may be established in Norway or Finland later this year.

Olsen stresses that the ecosystem combines air heaters, batteries and supporting equipment designed for rapid deployment and operation in changing conditions. The system heats tents, shelters and even personnel to prevent hypothermia, with an emphasis throughout on reliability in extreme cold.

- That is what differentiates us, Olsen says:

- Everything is designed for Arctic operations. We call it an ecosystem for heat and power.

Heat, not exposure

Olsen argues that the innovation lies not only in portability, but in survivability.

Euroheater’s systems have been field-tested in Ukraine, where heat signatures can be lethal in modern warfare. Drones equipped with thermal sensors can detect conventional heating systems almost instantly.

- We have addressed that problem, says Carl Ronny Olsen.

The system is designed to reduce thermal visibility while remaining transportable, avoiding reliance on large diesel generators still widely used by armed forces.

Exactly how the technology works is confidential, stresses Carl Ronny Olsen. But in practical terms, the system allows personnel to maintain heat while reducing thermal signature.

- We see strong demand not only for heating, but for energy systems that can operate in extreme cold and at the same time save defence forces very large sums in terms of diesel consumption, logistics expenses and maintenance, Olsen adds.

- We deliver heating and power at a much lower cost for defence forces than what is known today.

The pull of the high north

For Olsen, the strategic context is shifting northwards.

The future of conflict will increasingly involve the Arctic, he says, pointing to growing interest from the United States and Russia in northern sea routes and natural resources.

That, in turn, places new demands on equipment.

- We need systems that function in extreme cold. That capability has been limited until now.

At its simplest, the proposition is stark: protection from cold without creating new vulnerabilities, protecting lives and increasing soldiers’ operability.

- It is about saving lives, Olsen says, referring both to environmental exposure and detection by adversary systems.

- Everyone needs heat.