CUTTING-EDGE WIND FUNDED

Boulder Wind Power raises $8 million
Alicia Wallace, February 3, 2011 (Boulder Daily Camera)

"Boulder Wind Power, a Boulder-based company, raised $8 million in a preferred stock financing designed to help the firm prove and flesh out its ‘radically different’ direct drive wind turbine generator technology.

"New Enterprise Associates, a global venture capital firm with $11 billion in committed capital, led the Series A round, which included participation from individual investor James J. Maguire Jr…[Analysts say] the investment reflects the continued strength of the clean energy sector despite some difficult recent years…"

click to enlarge

"The $8 million will help the 25-employee Boulder Wind Power make significant advancements on the technology that was the basis for the company's founding, said Sandy Butterfield, chief executive officer and co-founder. Butterfield, a scientist with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory for the past 25 years, founded the firm in 2009 with Jim Smith and Matt Jore, the developers of the technology."

The direct drive transmission is a major advance on the the traditional generator. (click to enlarge)

"Having a direct drive generator and eliminating a gear box, would represent a simpler, more cost-effective way to make utility scale wind turbines, he said…Boulder Wind Power…[will now] pursue the proof of concept; further develop the design; and finalize the business plan…[while holding] discussions with wind turbine OEM suppliers and other potential partners that might not currently have a stake in the wind industry…

"Although the utility-scale wind power installations dropped by nearly 50 percent in 2010 from 2009, Butterfield said the broader trends surrounding renewable energy and pushes away from fossil fuels spell optimism for the future…"