SwampFox

InnoVenture: Wind innovation could cut power costs

This article by Dolph Bell originally appeared in the Greenville News

Greenville inventor and entrepreneur Jerry L. Barber designed and manufactured amusement rides for nearly 20 years before turning his attention to wind turbines.

Now he's come up with a design for twin turbines mounted on an oceangoing barge that he says could dramatically reduce the cost of generating electricity from wind.

The barge could be deployed out of site from land and away from migratory bird routes, Barber said, and moved easily by a tugboat to avoid an approaching hurricane.

“I think it's a big paradigm shift,” he said.

Barber will present the innovation during the eighth-annual InnoVenture conference Tuesday and Wednesday at the Carolina First Center.

The annual networking fest for entrepreneurs, investors, researchers, executives and others is expected to draw about 500 people – all of them seeking customers, capital, talent or technology.

“Everybody's looking for some combination of those four things,” said InnoVenture founder John Warner. He said tickets to the exclusive business conference are still available at $500 apiece.

This year's InnoVenture will consist of a series of “conversations” organized around four topics: health information and technology; materials and manufacturing; mobility; and high-impact innovations.

The Przirembel Prize for collaboration in the Southeast leading to high-impact innovation will be presented for the first time during a Tuesday night dinner at the International Center for Automotive Research.

This year's list of InnoVenture presenters includes Zike, a specialty bicycle company in Greenville; Kin Valley, a social media site for families based on Hilton Head Island; and GVD Corp., which manufactures coatings in southern Greenville County using technology developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Also on the agenda to present are the South Carolina Governor's School for Science and Mathematics, the North Carolina Biotechnology Center, the Southeastern Institute of Manufacturing and Technology and the Charlotte Research Institute.

Venture capital firms from Tennessee, Atlanta and the Boston area are expected to attend, as are angel investor networks from Greenville, Charleston and Charlotte.

Major corporations taking part include Duke Energy Corp., Sealed Air Corp., Milliken & Co., General Electric Co., Michelin North America and Blue Cross Blue Shield of South Carolina.

“InnoVenture is a great opportunity for a large company like ours to meet other large companies, as well as middle market companies, high-impact entrepreneurs and university researchers,” said Chris Desoiza, Vice President of Milliken Research.

Barber, the Greenville inventor, applied lessons learned in the amusement ride business to come up with wind turbines he says are lighter, quieter and less costly to make.

His wind turbine designs have five blades inside a ring, instead of the usual three blades, and don't include a gearbox, a difference that Barber says eliminates a lot of the manufacturing cost and maintenance requirements.

“We think we can dramatically reduce the cost of electricity with this, compared to the current wind turbines,” Barber said.

He said Chance Wind, a company in Wichita, Kansas, has licensed his design for a land-based turbine that can generate up to one megawatt of power. Chance Wind is expected to bring the product to market by the end of the summer, Barber said.