A mobile, retractable-blade wind turbine equipped with solar panels is one of the newest inventions to emerge from Hawaii’s increasingly dynamic alternative-energy sector.
Honolulu-based Natural Power Concepts, a private company that designed the turbine, has secured a licensing agreement with Oshkosh Defense, which will develop a full-scale model in the coming months.
Oshkosh Defense is a division of Osh-kosh Corp., a major manufacturer of specialty vehicles and trucks based in Wisconsin.
“This is an example of us leveraging our environment as a perfect test bed of renewable-energy technology development,” said Larry Lieberman, the company’s CEO and a board member of the Hawaii Science and Technology Institute. “For us, we can only prototype things up to a certain level. To get anything meaningful built on a large scale really requires a larger company like Oshkosh.”
John Pitre, who invented the turbine, initially designed it for storm protection. Most large, utility-scale wind turbines can’t be placed in areas subject to severe storms.
Thus emerged the retractable blades. When wind speeds reach certain heights, the blades are pushed back to a closed position.
“While it started off as a storm-survivability feature, we then began to realize that it made it more survivable, but also more portable and quieter,” Lieberman said.
The portability has emerged as a key feature. The company views the system as an ideal product for humanitarian or disaster-relief missions, an aspect that Oshkosh, which contracts heavily with the military, has found enticing.
“The technology has potential applications for the Department of Defense for expeditionary missions as well as the National Guard and other agencies within the government that have disaster-recovery missions,” said Steve Nimmer, director of engineering and technology programs at Oshkosh Defense.
The turbine is designed to have seven blades instead of three, in order to catch low wind speeds more effectively. The wind and solar energy collected by the system will be stored in a battery bank. If energy gets low, the batteries can be recharged with a generator.
While Hawaii lacks the infrastructure and resources for major manufacturing, its abundant resources have made it an ideal location for scientists to test alternative-energy projects. Mitch Ewan, a program manager at the Hawaii Natural Energy Institute, said that for a small company like Natural Power Concepts to attract this type of attention was very encouraging.
“The fact that they’ve signed with Oshkosh, that’s huge,” Ewan said. “It gives an enormous amount of credibility to what they are doing.”
Natural Power Concepts
CEO: Larry Lieberman
President: John Pitre
Address: 1515 Ualakaa Place, Honolulu, HI 96822
Phone: (808) 944-9283
email@example.com | 955-8036