The judging committee for the MIT Enterprise Forum Ignite Clean Energy business presentation competition has announced that FloDesign Wind Turbine Corp. of Wilbraham, Mass., was selected as the first-place winner.
FloDesign won a cash prize, three months worth of public relations services from Bell Pottinger USA, legal services provided by Mintz Levin and a choice of one year of office space from Cummings Properties or incubator space at the UMass Dartmouth Applied Technology and Manufacturing Center.
According to FloDesign, its patented FloDesign FD700 shrouded turbine, which has a nameplate capacity of 700 kW, can outperform existing turbines by a factor of three or more in a much wider range of wind resources. The teams' experience applying ‘mixer-ejector’ technology to such projects as the Stealth bomber, Gulfstream II and Comanche helicopter enables migration of mature aerospace methods to wind turbine applications. The company plans to design, manufacture and sell the FD700 to wind farm developers, industrial operators and utilities.
‘[The finalists] truly embody the mission of the Ignite Clean Energy business presentation competition to foster the growth of the clean energy industry in New England,’ says Clark Waterfall, 2008 competition chair. ‘I look forward to seeing each of the teams grow into successful clean energy businesses.’
SOURCE: Ignite Clean Energy
