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Investing in Wind Companies

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17 Reader Comments
Comment
1 of 17
July 9, 2008
What is going to happen is someone will crack the equations. My company is commercializing a $.05/kWh utility scale Next Generation Wind Turbine. (Sannerprojects, Inc JRIAM1945@aol.com) I am sure others will follow suite. Wind if Cracked, which includes intelligent and mass manufacturing, engineering, installation, etc., should go to $.03/kWh. The US has copious amounts of high intensity wind resources in its territories. Of course, the push back is enormous (and bless TB Pickens), don't try wind in Canada, or Puerto Rico. Lots of intrigue like funded NFP's who back slap each other for having a plan that gets a piece of a piece of the problem 18 years hence! Or, guru's who forget to include the costs of drilling, (redrilling), logistics, shipping, refining, more logistics, storage, distribution, plus a few hundred billion of military presence to secure the supply lines? The blunt reality is only 1 company ever understood technology where generate 2, subsumed generation 1 (that was Intel, remember 8080, 8086, 80186, 80286, 80386, 80486, 80585/ pentium). Most wind is government subsidized. Once wind is cracked, the historical junkyards will have lots of $.15/kWh units, obsoleted by $.05/kWh units. An electrons carries no moniker.
Comment
2 of 17
July 9, 2008
Credit Suisse just purchased 24% of Composite Technology Corporation
CPTC on 6-30-2008 at .88.

Besides the Dewind Turbines CTC also sells ACCC Composite Core for Electrical Transmission Cable, the composite core is a replacement for traditional steel core, both type of core are wrapped with aluminum but the composite core is lighter and stronger with 38% more aluminum than steel core and can double the current carrying capacity and dramatically increase system reliability.

CTCs composite core can save a utility up to 3% in operating output (that is 3% less Carbon from a coal burning power plant) at the plant level and 38% less line loss. CTCs core is cash flow positive with 40% margins.

Credit Suisse will be placing a board member soon as part of their deal with CTC management
Comment
3 of 17
July 9, 2008
Luis, thanks! I'd forgotten about them.

James, you're right; Dan has been around since before there was an industry. He was (and is) "big wind." i haven't met him, but folks we know sit on a board with him and speak well of him.
Comment
4 of 17
July 9, 2008
As another poster mentioned above, I'm very interested in Juhl Wind. Their CEO Dan Juhl has been in the industry before there was an industry. It's still a speculative investment, but I've been impressed at how fast they've moved their stock price up since recently going public and particularly since they're on the OTC exchange. They are work on getting on the Nasqac which would make all the difference for Juhl Wind and the wind energy industry in general. In the interest of full disclosure, I recently bought some shares with fingers crossed.
Comment
5 of 17
July 9, 2008
To David Ashworth:

If you're interested in raising capital for your prototype technology maybe you should check the following event:

www.cleanenergyforum.com

Hope it helps!
Comment
6 of 17
July 9, 2008
The wind industry, and all Americans, should thank T. Boone Pickens for his comprehensive energy proposal involving vast wind farms in Texas. The energy produced by the wind farms would supplant natural gas plants that now produce most of the peak energy we use. That natural gas would then be used to replace gasoline in our cars, thus reducing our dependence on foreign oil. The difference between Pickens plan and a lot of others is that his plan is comprhensive, not just industry peculiar - and it would work. So would several others (oil shale to harness the 3 trillion barrels of heavy crude locked up there, using wind and solar to replace coal-fired power plants; and then using the coal for clean-coal gasification, biodiesel from algae, etc.). Any of these comprehensive plans would work and could win the petroleum cold war being waged against us - a war meant to bring us down economically, the same way we brought Communist russia down in the other cold war. And it will, unless we treat it as a war - a fact totally lost on both the sitting administration, and the two Presidential candidates.One thing is for sure, Picken's plan can only help the wind industry.
Comment
7 of 17
July 9, 2008
OOps! its BWEN.OB. Sorry!
Comment
8 of 17
July 9, 2008
BWIN.OB is a hot Americn pure wind play. They started by buying an old submarine factory on Lake Michigan and using it to make wind towers. Then they started acquisitions of a gear manufacturer, a fabricator and a wind tower service company. They are now able to execute the contracts for the overloaded european manufacturers in the midwest and Texas. They seem to have a great future.
Comment
9 of 17
July 9, 2008
A new small wind developer just went public.
JUHL.OB
This will be a winner and upside is huge.
Comment
10 of 17
July 9, 2008
I know of 3 reasons why you, and many others, cannot invest in small wind. Risk, risk, and risk. We are 506-capital compliant, have (correctly I hope!) identified a profitable market segment, are technically competent engineers and/or project managers and/or financial types, and have a design ready to prototype. I cannot count the number of presentations we've made and the generally warm response from all of them. i can, however, count the money we've raised over the course of a year: zero. Risk #1: Time frame. From concept to product to certification spans years. For big investors, that's tolerable. However, the smaller the contributed capital, the more insistent the agitation for more immediate returns. Risk #2: Customers. With a, shall we say, unstable financing environment, how is our customer going to predict his cash flow? (Purchase side or revenue side, doesn't matter.) Not from, er, ah, still-evolving gov't policy, that's for sure. Risk #3: Designing a successful wind turbine is difficult enough in itself. Couple that with the ancillary task of manufacturing blades the technical challenges present, to a prospective investor, a strong motivation to look for safer investments. In fact, blades easily constitute Risk #4 all by themselves. There's a reason there are no 50 kW machines: no rotors!
Comment
11 of 17
July 9, 2008
Peter: How about an updated solar investment article.
Thanks
Comment
12 of 17
July 9, 2008
Why keepon investing in large wind projects with large payback periods?
Why not make funds available without hassles to wind projects of 5-20 - 50 KW?
These projects will be set up by small businesses and will have many social and economic effects especially in India/ Asia.
I believe payback will be much faster.
At the moment getting funds for feasibility or project work or for equity is a big problem.
The local banks should be sensitized to lend for such projects . Will any bank in India for the present will even look at it?
No they wold not entertain it - even willing investors do not have access to technology / studies / equipment or finance in an east way.
It should be bought like you buy a motor bike or a fridge!
Comment
13 of 17
July 9, 2008
Smart ideas from smart people; wind can't lose. Has a huge spread too.

Now if Americans just had any freakin' money to invest,....they could jup on the bandwagon. But we don't.

All the Best,...
Comment
14 of 17
July 10, 2008
I'm a commercial developer in northern New England. Will be having a meeting with 42 property owners in early August, regarding a mountain site where they all own properties (mostly for timber farming). If there's a positive response, much less committments to lease their land, etc. I'll get back to you folks, forthwith. RXN
Comment
15 of 17
July 10, 2008
I don't understand everything David Ashworth describes, but what I do makes sense. I can't help but remember the solar related tax incentives from the Carter administration. People started buying things like thermal windows. Thermal window companies started crawling out of the woodwork and people bought cheap stuff. The quality product companies couldn't compete, went out of business and set us back a generation. I foresee the same happening with Wind and other oil replacements.
Eugene Lucas is on track that as a nation we must treat this as a war. Unfortunately Washington is infiltrated with Oil Industry lobbies and very little exists to compete with them for our politicians attention. I'm convinced the Environmental lobbies are NOT the answer because they too often have some bizarre agendas. I retired as an Environmental Engineer—something quite the opposite of an EnvironmentalIST, people who made common sense a crime in many ways.
I'm not ready to invest in Wind or Solar because our culture is somewhere between apathy and panic, but good science is almost taboo. Try sitting in a bar and bring up a SCIENTIFIC Wind discussion. After ten minutes the conversation will switch back to sports heroes or what some movie star says in the answer.
Comment
16 of 17
July 10, 2008
There is a small New Zealand Co called Windflow which makes a small 500kW wind energry converter that generates at system frequency, in their case 50Hz, but I understand they are developing a 60Hz version for Hawai. This machine is a unique advance on all other machines being manufactured because of its synchronised synchronous generation. This is no different from any other governor controlled generator system.
Comment
17 of 17
July 14, 2008
Would someone please build one of these?
I filed a provisional patent but I am tapped out financially.

This is like the Savonius style for high torque at low speeds.
http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k38/BulBob/SAVONIUS.jpg

The idea for this one is to start up using the Savonius and automatically switch to the Darrieus style to take advantage of higher wind speeds.
http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k38/BulBob/Dual-VAWT.jpg

Here are some options worthy of noting:
1. Bending / rounding the top and bottom 1/4 portions of the blades should increase output.
2. Extending the blades past the hinge point (changing the pivot points) may improve performance
3. Changing blade height to width ratios - changing diameter to height ratio
4. Different styles may be ideal for different locations - telephone poles, on roofs, between buildings, wind farms etc...

To dang many options for me to have a clue!
Math is my weak suit!
I just draw things that look like a good idea.

I would gladly share the ownership of the patent for some successful field testing. I will also work to get grants to support the research after a prototype prove my theories.

Paul Lieb
PaulVAWT
plieb@neo.rr.com
http://www.bulletbobber.com/wipoin.html
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Peter Lynch

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About: I have worked, for 33 years as an independent analyst and investor in small emerging technology companies. I have been actively involved in following developmen... more »

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