Reported by Staff

BOULDER - A new clean energy company with Colorado management roots is making the Front Range home.

Boulder Wind Power, headed by former NREL chief engineer, Sandy Butterfield, says it will design and build the next generation of wind turbines. The company will hire 15 people this summer and possibly as many as 30 by year’s end, and it is seeking to attract wind, electrical, structural and mechanical engineers and analysts.

Financial backing for the startup is being fueled by New Enterprise Associates, a California-based venture capital firm. Butterfield is no stranger to Colorado’s energy technology sector, having worked at NREL in Golden for nearly 25 years, including the past 10 years as the chief engineer for the federal laboratory’s wind program.

Boulder Wind Power will focus on designing, developing and eventually manufacturing large megawatt wind turbines, primarily for onshore and possibly offshore use. According to Butterfield, the turbines will feature redesigned “direct-drive generators” instead of the more common gear-drive systems. Butterfield says this is the key innovation and challenge for the company.

“Normally, the rotors in a wind turbine turn slower than the generators, which like to move fast,” Butterfield explained to local media. Frequently, engineers will design a gearbox to speed up the rotors to match the generators - it’s the least expensive solution today but not the most mechanically reliable.

BWP’s plan is to manufacture direct-drive generators that are as light and inexpensive as the more-prevalent gear-driven systems. Direct drive units are more reliable because the entire system movesat the same speed. However, they are cost more and weigh more than gear-driven turbines.

The company hopes to have a proof of concept within two years, and a prototype machine in three years. The large 1.5-megawatt wind turbines would span about 88 to 105 meters in diameter.

Why Boulder for the new company’s location? “It’s an easy place to attract competent wind-energy engineers,” Butterfield says, and points to the fact that new employees are already relocating from other Rocky Mountains states and even overseas.

“Boulder has become a center for wind-energy excellence,” Butterfield said.  “Quite a bit of that comes from the governor casting Colorado as a wind-energy state.”

He adds that while the business will be run from the Boulder location, eventual manufacturing of the wind turbines will take place elsewhere along the Front Range.