WIND ENERGY: SEVERAL TOP US clean technology venture capitalists are backing a radical new design for wind turbines that look and act like jet engines.
FloDesign’s new turbine forces air through a small hole, causing it to speed up, thereby creating a difference in pressure.
This, in turn, draws more air into its double rings of turning blades. The result is that one of these turbines can do the work of up to four conventional three-bladed wind turbines.
Like a jet engine, the turbine is encased – or “shrouded” – rather than open. This design, the company says, has proved to be far more efficient than open fan turbines. Its core idea is that each turbine can generate more energy with smaller blades and shorter towers, meaning less material is needed to manufacture them.
This could have a significant impact on the costs of building wind farms, which typically run into hundreds of millions or billions in the case of the largest projects.
The Massachusetts-based company, which has been making aerospace and jet propulsion equipment since 1990, initially raised money from leading US venture capitalists Kleiner, Perkins Caulfield and Byers after receiving an €6.15 million grant from the US Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency.
Although FloDesign says that its turbine is still at the research and development stage, it recently closed a second funding round that saw a syndicate made up of venture capitalists Technology Partners and Vantage Point Venture Partners, along with a Goldman Sachs managed fund.
Lars A Andersen recently became chief executive of FloDesign, having previously worked for the world’s leading wind turbine firm, Vestas of Denmark. During his time there he ran the firm’s lucrative division in China.
He is now responsible for managing FloDesign’s transition and growth from an RD organisation into a leading manufacturer.
