They have chosen to use alternative materials in building small wind turbines in an attempt to increase efficiency and decrease cost. With only a few tweaks of materials, Anderson and King have a real shot at breaking into the fledgling industry.
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Recently, I met with Alphonse Anderson and Charles King, founders of Velocity² Wind and participants in the MORE Program. They have chosen to use alternative materials in building small wind turbines in an attempt to increase efficiency and decrease cost. With only a few tweaks of materials, Anderson and King have a real shot at breaking into the fledgling industry.
The fledgling industry of small wind power, that is. Large-scale commerical-grade wind power is already a huge market, making up most of the 5.2 thousand Megawatts of wind power that was installed in the U.S. just last year. However, the small wind industry is still struggling to take flight, mostly due to the consumer worries of cost efficiency, noise, and visual impact. Oh, and safety issues, too (although there have been no 'innocent bystander' casualties due to wind power. The only casualties have been to workers installing and repairing the large-scale systems, and an unfortunate parachuting accident).
When King had the idea for using alternative materials for a wind turbine, he realized that the only way to properly approach his idea was to attempt it in small wind systems, whether or not it would work in large-scale wind. He remarked that trying to pitch his idea to the large-scale wind companies would be futile, but small wind was a good bet since no company has jumped out to be the leader.
Anderson and King have been working with prototypes of their design and comparing it to existing designs from competitors. So far, their tests have given them great results. Since they decided to enter an industry that has not yet solidified may very well allow them to break through to the surface soon.
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