WePOWER

Try and catch the wind┬áWePOWER is feeling the wind in its sails with an innovative design and a supportive administration in Washington, as founder, chairman and CEO Marvin Winkler explains to Gary Toushek. ÔÇ£There is a focused, dual meaning behind the ÔÇÿweÔÇÖ in WePOWER,ÔÇØ explains Marvin Winkler. ÔÇ£The ÔÇÿweÔÇÖ stands for ÔÇÿwind energyÔÇÖ and also ÔÇÿweÔÇÖ as in ÔÇÿus,ÔÇÖ united for a wind-dependent future. ÔÇ£I view this new era of alternative energy as being analogous to the mainframe and the personal computer,ÔÇØ Winkler continues. ÔÇ£In the past, the mainframe started out as the source of power and information. However, advancements in technology soon gave birth to a new, revolutionary productÔÇöthe PC, which literally brought power to the fingertips of people. The new technology allowed a vast number of PCs to be connected to the Internet, or grid, which in turn made the PC more powerful than the initial mainframe. Today, the PC-Internet revolution has created a whole new economy.ÔÇ£WePOWER┬á represents that ÔÇÿpower to the peopleÔÇÖ concept by providing everyone with the ability to generate micro-units of power so that consumers and businesses can control their own power needs and be net generators themselvesÔÇödoing net metering and feeding the grid.ÔÇØTrying to be part of the future comes naturally to Winkler, who has always enjoyed being at the forefront of innovation and new technology. In fact, his background includes the apparel industry (ÔÇ£where I learned that in order to survive you have to stay on top of the latest trends,ÔÇØ) marketing and consumer product development, sports and entertainment events, entertainment software (gaming), Internet security, and broadcast-Internet connectivity and interactivity. Winkler soon became interested in the concept of AmericaÔÇÖs energy independence from foreign oil to help strengthen the economy. With the idea of ÔÇ£the power of manyÔÇØ in mind, he shortly thereafter discovered a wind turbine manufacturing company based in Torrance, California named PacWind, that had been designing and manufacturing innovative vertical-axis wind turbines for seven years.PacWindÔÇÖs founder, the late Phil Watkins, had designed a proprietary (and patented) drag-and-lift airfoil/blade that has the ability to start at low wind speeds (three miles per hour) and self-regulate (at 55 mph), requiring neither gears nor brakes. The self-start and self-regulation characteristics of the PacWind turbines solved a traditional problem within the turbine industry: blades rotating too quickly in high winds cause the mechanisms to overheat or self-destruct. The basic difference in turbine design is that a horizontal turbine typically has 1,800 moving parts, with a propeller spinning on a gearbox with ball bearings that can wear out, become noisy and vibrate unless regularly maintained; a vertical turbine is smaller and has blades, or airfoils, that spin in a cylindrical fashion. A WePOWER turbine has only one moving part: the airfoil.Watkins also developed the manufacturing process of pultrusion, which was conceived by his mentor, Brent Goldworthy, in a PacWind facility. Pultrusion is essentially pulling a group of fibrous materials through a resin bath and a heated die to cure the product. A saw is programmed to cut the product to a desired length. The properties of the product are strength and stiffness in tension. ÔÇ£Pultrusion allows us to produce about one thousand feet of turbine per mold per day, and with PacWindÔÇÖs one-million-square-foot facility in Virginia, plus others in Minnesota, Ohio and California, we have the capacity for 50 molds or more, which gives us the capability of manufacturing in great quantityÔÇöroughly 500,000 units per year,ÔÇØ says Winkler.┬áÔÇ£If you look at the traditional horizontal turbine market in North America today, the waiting list for machines is from 18 months to two years.ÔÇØThe next step was finding an appropriate generator to convert wind into electricity, and Winkler found it at Aura Systems Inc. in El Segundo, California, which has manufactured the AuraGen integrated, mobile power generator and power management system for clients such as the US Department of Defense. ÔÇ£Aura Systems agreed to be the exclusive provider of generators for our turbines, which definitely gives us a leg up on turbine competitors in the marketplace,ÔÇØ says Winkler.┬á WePOWER, based in Laguna Niguel, California, is currently retrofitting a large wind farm in Southern California, installing its new vertical turbines to replace the farmÔÇÖs old horizontal ones. ItÔÇÖs the companyÔÇÖs first 8-megawatt contract, with an additional 18 MW to come. WePOWERÔÇÖs 2-MW vertical turbine occupies only 3,000 square feet of space, compared to 70,000 square feet for a similar-capacity horizontal model. Another WePOWER business is the Windvertiser, an innovative, green opportunity for outdoor advertisers to forgo the outdated billboard route in favor of putting their ad images on turbine airfoils that entertain while creating energy. As the airfoils spin, the effect is a kind of animation, similar to flip-cards. ÔÇ£Windvertising allows companies that value their image in this era of green, clean energy to advertise in a productive, useful way,ÔÇØ says Winkler. ÔÇ£WeÔÇÖve been endorsed by the outdoor ad industry as one of its key renewable products.ÔÇØ Japanese company Ricoh is advertising on a giant sign in Times Square in New York City powered by 16 WePOWER wind turbines and 64 solar panels, saving up to $15,000 a month in electricity and about 18 tons of carbon per year.Winkler sees cell phone towers as another potential market for vertical turbines. Then thereÔÇÖs the commercial aspect of providing wind energy for buildings of all types, as the demand for renewable energy grows. HeÔÇÖs also about to announce a big-box retailer to sell turbines to consumers, with a qualified installation and a rebate and tax credit. The rebates, both state and federal, allow consumers and companies to get a quick payback for their investment; the fed will reimburse 30 percent of the cost, and California, for example, will allow $2.50 per watt up to 7,500 watts, then $1.50 up to 30,000 watts. ÔÇ£So over time it can mean a reimbursement of up to 75 or 80 percent,ÔÇØ he says.Winkler says he is fielding about 200 inquiries daily. ÔÇ£WeÔÇÖre talking to various entities globally to see what their interest is; weÔÇÖre trying to set up joint ventures or licensing so we can share this innovation with the world. WeÔÇÖre looking for people with the same vision and ability and tie into that. When President Obama was campaigning for the American presidency, he helped increase awareness in alternative energies, and it has reinforced my belief that energy independence is a key factor in everyoneÔÇÖs future. So this venture is my way of contributing to help this and future generations toward that goal. And itÔÇÖll help turn around the economy at the same time.ÔÇØ  ÔÇô Editorial research by Sam Howard┬á