Is market ready for alternative wind?
Thursday, April 17th, 2008
Greentech Media has a series of excellent articles today profiling a few companies trying to tap wind energy in a different way than what we see from conventional wind farms. Companies mentioned in the pieces included Magenn Power (read here), Mariah Power (read here) and Southwest Windpower (read here). Another I’ve written about the in past is WhalePower.
A big open question is to what degree any of these approaches have a chance anytime soon? The wind industry is dominated by big turbine makers who can’t keep up with demand. Wind-energy developers will buy up anything they can get, so there’s little incentive for the Vestas and GEs of the world to invest in cutting edge technologies that improve or complement their existing wind businesses. This concerns observers such as Robert Thresher, a researcher at the National Wind Technology Center, which is a part of the U.S. government’s National Renewable Energy Lab. “It’s such a sellers market right now,” says Thresher. “The market has grown, there’s high demand, and (manufacturers) are taking their money and investing in plants and factories.” Likewise, Joshua Magee, an analyst with Emerging Energy Research, says the focus for the wind industry right now is on implementation rather than innovation. He calls any improvements to existing technologies “incremental” among the main manufacturers, which are more focused on the potential for energy storage that can give their product a more baseload profile.
That said, the big manufacturers ignore these new technologies at their own peril. Both Magee and Thresher say new approaches could prove an effective way for smaller companies to break into the big boys club or for one of the big boys, through an acquisition, to distinquish themselves in a market where the products are increasingly becoming different flavors of vanilla.
Time will tell, but it’s good to see innovation taking place — let’s just hope investors can appreciate the potential.
Tyler Hamilton is editor-in-chief of Corporate Knights magazine and a business columnist for the Toronto Star, Canada's largest daily newspaper. In addition to this Clean Break blog, Tyler writes a weekly column of the same name that discusses trends, happenings and innovators in the clean technology and green energy market. This blog is a personal project started in April 2005. It is not an official blog of the newspaper.
