Boulder Wind Power funded to design better wind turbine

BOULDER – Take a look at the wind turbines at the National Wind Technology Center on the bluff overlooking south Boulder County.

You’ll see a marvel of modern engineering – but you might also be looking at technology about to be overtaken by something better.

A new design developed by Boulder Wind Power Inc., a clean-tech startup founded in Boulder in 2009, might make wind turbines less expensive, more reliable and more efficient.

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The technology could be the core part of the next generation of turbines and help Boulder Wind Power carve out a leading role in the renewable energy industry, co-founder and chief executive Sandy Butterfield said.

The company has raised $46.5 million in venture capital, including the backing of a major supplier of crucial materials, and a $700,000 research grant from the U.S. Department of Energy.

Boulder Wind Power is getting the support because of its innovative design for a new type of wind turbine generator. It can best be described to nonexperts by comparing it to the turbines familiar to anyone who drives past the National Renewable Energy Laboratory test facility.

The two most noticeable features of the turbines are the spinning rotors and the long support towers.

Connecting the towers and rotors is the nacelle, which contains the components that generate electricity.

In most nacelles, the slowly turning rotor spins a shaft that is connected to a gear box. The gears crank up the speed of another shaft, which is connected to an electric generator.

Gear boxes help turbines generate more power, but they also are complicated and the part of the machine that requires the most maintenance and that is most prone to failure.

Industry leaders such as General Electric and Siemens have tried to design turbines without gear boxes, called direct-drive turbines. In that kind of turbine, the rotors are connected directly to the generator.

“It’s much more reliable than a gear-driven system,” Butterfield said. “The simpler you can make it, the longer you can go and the better it is.”

The problem engineers have encountered is the generator has to be much larger and heavier to produce the same amount of power as conventional turbines.

That challenge provides Boulder Wind Power with its opportunity.

“If we could make a direct-drive machine that would match the size and weight of conventional turbines, it would be a home run,” Butterfield said.

Boulder Wind Power thinks it has solved the problem with a new generator design it believes will enable manufacturers to build wind turbines with a cost of energy 20 percent to 30 percent below existing technologies.

The generator uses permanent magnets and printed circuit boards, which are familiar to anyone who has opened up a computer, as key components. The circuit boards make the generator lighter and cheaper to produce.

Butterfield can explain the physics behind the generator in about 10 minutes, but the business case is quicker to sum up.

Boulder Wind Power’s design requires lower capital costs, lower operating costs, produces more energy and is a scalable platform, vice president of business strategy and chief financial officer Tim Connor said.

The $46.5 million in venture capital backing is enough to allow it to proceed to commercialization, Connor said. New Enterprise Associates Inc. is the leading investor and participated in the Series A funding round, which closed in February, and the Series B round, which closed in September.

The other major investor is Molycorp Inc. (NYSE: MCP), a Greenwood Village-based company that mines rare earth metals. Molycorp has a seat on Boulder Wind Power’s board and will be the preferred provider of the rare earth magnets and alloys Boulder Wind Power relies on.

“Securing a supply chain is hugely important for us,” Butterfield said.

The company is moving from the development phase into the testing phase, and it is on target to commercialize the technology and start generating revenue by 2014, Connor said.

Boulder Wind Power is on the radar screen of leading manufacturers.

“People in the industry know us, and they’re tracking us,” Butterfield said.

“We were able to raise money in a pretty challenging fund raising environment for renewable technology,” Connor said.

Boulder Wind Power employs about 25 people, Connor said. They work primarily on refining the technology and helping turbine manufacturers incorporate it with their rotor and tower designs.

Boulder Wind Power’s long-term strategy is to design but not build turbines. The company “(will) enable wind turbine manufacturers to build better, more competitive turbines … and leverage their ability to build big things,” Connor said.

While it is possible most of the turbines built with Boulder Wind Power’s generator could be in Europe and Asia, the company hopes to stay close to home.

“We’re committed to building this company in Boulder County,” Butterfield said.

The presence of NREL, the University of Colorado and a strong private sector in renewable-energy technology make the area a magnet for the industry and will help Boulder Wind Power find the engineers it needs, Butterfield said.