FloDesign, Inc. announced this week that it received $34.5 million in venture capital last month to move its innovative wind turbine design from prototype to production.
The turbine reportedly is smaller, lighter and three times more efficient than the turbines in use today. By accelerating air passing through the turbine blades, the FloDesign turbine is said to be able to generate energy from lower wind speeds than is currently possible with traditional turbines.
The turbine's smaller blades also spin faster, which reduces the need for the costly gear boxes that connect large, slow-moving rotors used with today's turbines to high-speed generator units. With fewer gears and other moving components, the company claims it can reduce the number of parts in a turbine by up to 75%.
FloDesign, headquartered in Wilbraham, Massachusetts, previously received funding from the U.S. Energy Dept. and from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
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