Even with cautious expectations, a test the weekend of July 18 could mean big growth opportunities for Grandville-based Digital Tool & Die, which hopes a new approach to the design of wind turbines will generate more energy from the breeze and perhaps more jobs for the company.
Digital is testing an innovation it has developed based on a concept by Netherlands-based inventor Edwin Arnold, who believes the use of airfoil and higher elevation can increase the efficiency of urban-based turbines. Digital’s co-owner Mike Gill says that if it works, a customer in Hawaii is ready to purchase 250 units.
But as is usually the case with wind-energy innovation, caution is the word of the day.
“The jury’s still out on this wind turbine,” Gill says. “And you’ve got to try to keep the cost down because a return on investment is really what you want. The best you’ll ever find on one is five years, and usually they’re talking a payback of 10 to 20 years. That thing is probably never going to make up enough electricity to get back what you paid for it. So we’re trying to build a vertical windmill so you can try to get that cost down and get that return on investment sooner.”
Gill recognizes that a truly efficient wind turbine that comes at significantly reduced cost would likely be a major generator of business as well as energy – but until it is shown to work in a real-life setting, he remains cautious about job-growth speculation, even with that prospective order waiting in Hawaii.
Source: Mike Gill, Digital Tool & Die
Deborah Johnson Wood is development news editor for Rapid Growth. She can be contacted at [email protected].
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