FloDesign's wind turbine based on jet engine technology triples standard turbine efficiency.
FloDesign secures $34.5 million of venture capital to go with $8.3 million from feds via ARPA-E program
Massachusetts-based FloDesign Wind has received another big jolt of investment with its most recent round of funding. The company will use the nearly $43 million in venture capital funding to continue testing of its jet engine-inspired wind turbine that, according to its designers, triples standard wind turbine efficiency.
The latest (as well as the previous) round of funding for FloDesign was led by cleantech VC rockstars Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers. However this time around, KPCB was joined by a syndicate of three other high-profile investors: a Goldman Sachs managed investment fund, Technology Partners and VantagePoint Venture Partners.
Along with the announcement of the new round of funding, FloDesign also announced changes in the executive leadership. Lars A. Andersen joined FloDesign as Chief Executive Officer in early January, 2010. Mr. Andersen will be responsible for managing the company's "transition from a research and development organization to a leading renewable technology manufacturing company."
FloDesign has not only been the darling of cleantech VCs, the company has also caught the eye of the Department of Energy, receiving $8.3 million from the newly-funded ARPA-E program. Considering the quantity of public and private funding pouring into FloDesign right now, I suspect more than a few folks will be waiting with baited breath for any news out of the company's Massachusetts testing facilities on updates about the viability of this little gem and whether it might actually live up to its already lofty billing.
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via: CleanTechnica via: BusinessGreen
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I CANNOT BELIEVE THAT!!
It is thru that the 35% average efficiency of tri-blades wind turbines is not outstanding. On other hand pretend to produce 3 or 4 time more energy means to transform 105 to 140% of the kinetics energy of wind in electricity, this is just impossible!!!
By the way, what is the expected noise level at the exit of a jet like turbine?
I think the 3-4 times more efficient claim is based on the land area needed to produce a given amount of electricity. That is, the generators are more efficient and require a much smaller footprint so you can pack more generators into a given area. So one acre of a flodesign system would produce 3-4 times more electricity than one acre of the conventional three-bladed generators.