BroadStar Wind Crosses $1 per Watt Barrier – Watch Out, Solar

Dallas-based BroadStar Wind Systems is about to turn a giant corner --- into $1 per watt wind, into urban windmills and into the global energy big league.

If, that is, its new wind turbine -- the "flexi-location" AeroCam -- can live up to all of it of its enormous claims.

No small task.

The company busted out of stealth at WINDPOWER 2008 with the announcement of its long-awaited AeroCam -- and this shocker of a double promise:

• The AeroCam turbine will make wind power generation possible in nearly every location, including cities.
• And it will make wind cheap – $1 per watt, installed – for the first time ever, with the 250,000 kWh machine to be priced at $250,000.

How will it do that exactly? By being small on size but big on power, the company claims.

According to BroadStar, the AeroCam is short, compact and easy-to-install, with parallel rotor blades located much closer to the ground than conventional propeller-based turbines.That low-ground proximity allows the machines to capture surface-wind energy at low rotational speeds.

And it qualifies AeroCam to "infill" existing rural wind farms. Meaning: the small turbines can be stuck between taller and larger propeller-based ones for better power generation.

In urban areas, they can be installed on commercial and residential rooftops, picking up wind drafts that strike buildings, and then moving upwards, catching currents from four to 80 mph.

The kicker?

BroadStar is convinced that its machines will be "manufactured, transported, installed and maintained at lower costs" than any other wind turbine on the planet. And most -- if not all -- rooftop solar panels.

(Yep, it’s gearing up to take on that market, too. Watch out Nanosolar...)

Still don’t be fooled, yet.

BroadStar may be getting most of the online attention of the wind energy little guys right now (as anyone with a $1 a watt claim often does), but it has some stiff competition.

Here’s just a fraction of that legion of competitors, courtesy of Cleantech Group: Mariah Power, Southwest Windpower, Bergey Windpower, Solar Wind Works and Entegrity Wind Systems.

The marathon race for mass-market, $1 a watt clean energy is on -- that's for sure -- and it seems anyone can win it.

Source: Cleantech Group

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