A compact, “motionless” wind turbine with a magnetic generator, designed for large commercial roofs, delivers a capacity of 5 kW per unit. Aeromine Technologies has secured Series A funding to scale its innovative design.
A new bladeless wind power unit patented by Aeromine Technologies has secured $9 million in Series A funding to accelerate the rollout of its innovative technology. The scalable, “immobile” wind power unit can produce 50% more energy than rooftop solar at the same cost, the company said.
Aeromine’s technology is primarily designed for installation on the edge of a large roof, such as an apartment building, large retail store, factory or warehouse, facing the prevailing wind direction. The technology uses aerodynamics like wing profiles in a racing car to capture and amplify the airflow of each building. The unit takes up about 10% of the space required by solar panels and generates energy 24 hours a day, as long as the wind blows.
Veriten, an energy research, investment and strategy firm led the financing round, with participation from Thornton Tomasetti. The company said it has received nearly 11,000 inquiries from more than 6,500 companies and currently has a pipeline of 400 qualified projects. Its customers are mainly in the industrial, logistics, automotive, commercial and government sectors.
Aeromine said that unlike conventional wind turbines which are noisy, visually intrusive and dangerous to migratory birds, the patented system is visually motionless and virtually silent. And unlike large centralized onshore and offshore wind farms, the space-saving systems are mounted on roofs, bringing power closer to where it is needed and reducing the need for expensive transmission infrastructure over long distances.
“Distributed power is an important and increasingly strategic element for an evolving ‘all of the above’ energy mix,” said Maynard Holt, founder and CEO of Veriten. “We believe distributed energy innovation will play a critical role in helping businesses meet their need for reliable, reasonably priced electricity and their desire for low-impact energy.
Each unit weighs just over 1,000 kg, can withstand winds of up to 200 km/h and can be upgraded to hurricane-proof models that can withstand winds of up to 250 km/h. The Aeromine generator system is a state-of-the-art rotor/stator system with a 5 kW permanent magnet generator. Product specifications can be found here.
A typical installation would connect 10 units or more, adding 50 kW of capacity to a roof. The electricity generation of a system with ten 50 kW units varies widely. Aeromine said a roof height of 16 feet and an average wind speed of 15 feet per second would produce approximately 20,000 kWh per year, while the same system of 10 units on a 50-foot roof with an average wind speed of 25 feet per second would produce more than would produce 8 meters per second. 150,000 kWh per year.
Aeromine told pv magazine USA that “prices are in line with comparable commercial rooftop solar systems.” The company expects to introduce a commercial solution to the European and North American markets in 2025.
“Aeromine’s patented technology brings the performance of wind energy to the on-site generation market, alleviating the existing limitations of wind turbine operation,” said David Asarnow, CEO of Aeromine.
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