Monday, April 7, 2008

MTC awards FloDesign $500K for new turbine concept

By Efrain Viscarolasaga

Wilbraham-based FloDesign Corp. wants to change the basic form factor of wind turbines to look more like a jet engine than a windmill. The Massachusetts Technology Collaborative (MTC) sees a future in the firm's new design and has ponied up a $500,000 convertible loan to help the company build a prototype.

Traditionally a maker of custom machinery for the aerospace industry, FloDesign has developed a wind turbine that it claims can generate more power from a smaller package -- and that translates into a turbine with a lower profile as well as one that is easier and cheaper to manufacture and transport.

Like the first mass-produced automobiles, FloDesign CEO Stanley Kowalski hopes the company's design can change the way the industry operates. "We want to be the Model-T of wind manufacturing," he said.

The company's design uses a cascade of air foils, each wrapped in a "shroud," like a jet engine. According to executives, the design can produce 50 percent more power than a three-blade turbine, at half the size and 30 percent less cost.

FloDesign will use the funds to build its first prototype, which will be about 12 feet in diameter and generate about 10 kilowatts. The final version will be about 50 feet across and generate about 700 kw. Officials hope to have commercial units ready in two years.

The funding also requires a company match, and FloDesign said it is now working with angels and venture capitalists to come up with the additional funds. In addition, FloDesign has a chance at more funding as a semifinalist in the upcoming MIT $100K business plan competition and its clean energy counterpart, the MIT Clean Energy Entrepreneurship Prize, both being held this spring.

A report from Emerging Energy Research said that investment in wind power is surging globally, rising from $8 billion per year from 2002-2004 to a projected $18 billion annually on average for 2008-2010.

According to Sissi Liu, the industry investment and development manager for the MTC, the company's approach is unique -- and is one that could help the region build a reputation as an innovator in the technology behind wind power.

"With the wind blade test facility coming to the region and a number of technology companies working on new technologies, we see a great opportunity to have a wind-technology cluster here," she said.