Presenting at our May 26 MeetUp were two companies in our community that have had some recent success in fundraising and lining up customers. Kevin Wolf of WindHarvest and Janice Tran of Kanin Energy gave us insights into how they managed these important steps in the last few months.

 WindHarvest came up with a new design for a ground-mounted vertical axis wind turbine that can fit in between existing tower-mounted horizontal-axis machines and improve the capacity factor of the installation. Kevin said that he is avoiding adding to the output because that would require new contracts which are nearly impossible to get. Instead, the WindHarvest turbines can operate in the poorer near-ground wind regime that currently is untapped. This market insight has been a key to their success. Second, he was at the right place and at the right time to raise money through crowdfunding, taking advantage of some relaxed restrictions at the SEC that were ultimately adopted into revised rules. They initially were hoping to raise about $800K, but with the new rules they have ended that round and will be trying to go for a full $5 million as now allowed. In addition, they have structured the raise so that investors are putting money into a separate special purpose company that invests in and buys equipment and services from WindHarvest itself. That means WindHarvest gains only one shareholder, while the 1400+ new shareholders from the original crowdraising deal and the 4000+ more they expect only with the special purpose company. What they invested in was a loan with warrants for shares in WindHarvest. Interest is paid on the loan from the proceeds of power sales. He expects the first turbine will be operating in July. 

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (“drones”) have become very popular, not just with hobbyists but also with businesses and government agencies.  P&GE is looking at drones to inspect aging power infrastructure.  Communities use them for surveying land.  There are more and more applications for drones every day.  But one of the things holding back more development is the durability of the motors and the duration of the flights.  We have seen increases in flying time through motor efficiency, but operators still struggle with the durability required for a constantly operating motor. 

Enter Start-Up CR Flight, which has developed a Rotary Transformer® creating smaller, more durable motors (1000 hrs), that will enable longer flights, using a clever design for powering counter-rotating props.  Founders Dr. James Richey, Jonathan Emigh, and Randy Wishart came together to work on Wishart’s idea of the motor where both the rotor and the stator rotated (making the stator into an armature). One prop is fixed to each, eliminating the need for a second motor to achieve the added lift with a second prop.  Emigh saw that it would not only produce more lift but also be more durable.  They validated the design with a crude prototype but realized they needed to be able to deliver power to the moving rotor, more than current slip ring manufacturers had solutions for.

CR’s biggest challenge has been in increasing the understanding of what their Rotary Transformer Technology can do with any motor. The tests for standard motors show their max power, even though they can only run at 40-50% power without burning up. With their CR Flight Rotary Transformer design, they can pull much more power from the same motor and stay cool. They rate their motors on what they can run all day long, not what their max power is.  They need to demonstrate to customers directly to showcase well what they have achieved. 

CR flight has developed and tested 3 motors in conjunction with the Rotary Transformer in this setup and is looking to go bigger.  Once more customers understand the gains CR Flight has made in thrust efficiency, flight time, and durability, sales hopefully will soar. 

Check out more from CR flight.