HighestWind, LLC
News and notes are invited about Highest
Wind: :
Notes@EnergyKiteSystems.net
Wind Power for low wind
locations ™
Energy Glider™ systems
Member of AWEIA.
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Study clip from PDF document: http://media.umassp.edu/mattcenter/cce-2009/CCE09_Notebook.pdf
The 5
th Conference on Clean Energy:Financing & Partnering for Emerging Businesses
110 Startup Companies
Highest Wind LLC
Presented by:
Dimitri Cherny, CEO and Founder
Company Overview
Highest Wind Energy Gliders™ harvest the winds a thousand feet
above the ground – blowing two to three times faster than near the
ground. These stronger and steadier winds make Energy Gliders™
cost-effective in the low-wind locations where wind turbines are not –
more than half our planet. Wind resource maps reveal that less than
15% of our planet has average near-ground wind speeds adequate for
producing electrical power cost-effectively. Wind turbines are limited to
harvesting near-ground winds by the height of their towers – a few hundred
feet at most – making them cost-effective on only a small fraction
of our planet. Energy Gliders™ are cost-effective for at least three times more locations on earth.
Highest Wind Energy Gliders™ produce more than $13,000 worth of electricity annually (130,000+ kWh at
$0.10/kWh). Designed for the largest 200,000 farms in the 45 US states with winds too low for wind turbines,
Energy Gliders™ provide a payback in less than seven years with average 30 foot winds of just 8mph. Renewable
energy incentive programs in our target states reduce that payback to less than three years. For
farms throughout the US, the USDA’s REAP program reduces payback by at least two more years making
Energy Glider purchases possible in some states with no cash out-of-pocket – and $13,000+/year of ‘free’
electricity every year thereafter.
Product/Technology Profile
Similar to a child’s kite, patent pending Energy Gliders™ fly - rising and descending - a thousand feet above
the ground (but below FAA controlled airspace) pulling a high-strength tether to spin a generator on the
ground. Energy Glider systems run continuously and automatically to provide a capacity factor of greater
than 50% at a levelized cost of energy of less than five cents per kWh – nearly as low as the largest utilityscale
wind turbines and many times lower than the best and lowest cost solar PV systems. Our first 30kW
production unit will produce more than 130,000 kWh at sites with avg. 30ft. winds of just 8mph for a lifetime of
30 years, providing more than half the electricity needs of the average US farm. With an operational requirement
of more than 160 acres of land, NIMBY is a minimal concern.
Officers and Directors
Dimitri Cherny, CEO & Founder
Ursula Schwuttke, CBPO
Diane Bourque, CFO
Contact Information
117 Cushing Road
Newmarket, NH 03857
603.969.4667
dimitri@highestwind.com
www.highestwind.com
November 12 & 13, 2009
Hynes Convention Center ∙ Boston, MA
Startup Companies 111
Markets and Applications
Our Initial market is the 200,000 largest farms in the 45 US states with winds too low to make wind turbines
cost effective - a $14B market. Early marketing and dealer efforts are focused on the top seven states with
the best combination of high electricity prices, suitable winds, and the best renewable energy incentive programs.
Initial marketing efforts are specifically targeting the largest dairy farms in those states. While they
comprise only a $290M market, with the current unsustainable market price for milk, they are eager for any
product that can reduce their costs and/or provide an additional revenue source. Our market research has
yet to find a dairy farm unwilling to purchase an Energy Glider.
Commercial Opportunity
Energy Gliders™ will be sold through existing networks of regional dealers currently selling agricultural or energy
generation equipment, all with established relationships among our most likely prospects – farms. From
a ‘self-marketing’ perspective, Energy Gliders™ are nearly perfect – visible from miles around, we anticipate
considerable word-of-mouth marketing spreading virally from each successful installation. Our marketing efforts
will be primarily ‘product-marketing’, helping our dealers identify and sell to our most likely prospects in
a variety of farming verticals. Broad marketing will be mostly PR-based – riding the ‘Green’ wave.
Competitive Advantage
Highest Wind has discovered a “blue-ocean” market – wind power for low-wind locations – that is currently
unfulfilled by any other products. Wind turbines provide payback periods of longer than a decade in these
low-wind areas. Solar PV have even longer paybacks. Anaerobic digesters have an entry price fifteen times
higher. For any type of farm seeking distributed renewable energy, nothing else works in as many locations
so cost-effectively. Four other companies are publicly developing related Airborne Wind Energy (AWE) technology
but all are targeting utility scale applications – 1Mw or greater. No other AWE developers are designing
distributed renewable energy generation systems to serve the agricultural market.
Future Financial Plans
Our past year of research has been supported primarily by more than $100k of investment from friends. Our
next two years of development and certification testing will be supported by the $5M in series-A investment
we now seek. That money will allow us to build the channel, marketing and service organization we require
before shipping the first production Energy Glider units by Q3-2011. Highest Wind LLC will remain a design,
marketing, sales and service organization – our management team’s strengths. We are outsourcing engineering
and eventually manufacturing to our highly qualified partner organizations - Goss International and
EOS Research.