DEPARTMENT OF CHECKING THINGS OUT: Wired News has this piece on an Australian inventor and a California startup that are trying to commercialize a high-altitude wind power technology. "High altitude" means waaay up there -- three miles or more -- and the technology involves turbines mounted on tethered rotorcraft. The inventor has patented and successfully prototyped his design (see picture below) at low altitudes. But he and the company (Sky Windpower, headed by a guy named David Shepard, who made his original pile in the '50s as an inventor of Optical Character Recognition scanners) have been unable to raise $3 million to stage high altitude tests.


I heard about this outfit by accident a couple of years ago and exchanged emails with Shepard, who wondered if I knew anyone around here with money. (Ha ha.) It struck me then, and still does, as an idea that ought to interest Cleveland techbiz promoters. Cleveland, after all, is in a very high-cost power market, is at a very high-potential latitude (41.5 degrees north) according to Dr. Caldeira's charts, has a big lake over which you could fly these things, and has great local expertise in power technologies and aerospace at NASA Glenn -- soon to be seriously underutilitized.

It just seems like something that should be checked out by somebody in Northeast Ohio with an appropriate knowledge of engineering.

At the time I asked Holly Harlan of Entrepreneurs for Sustainability if she had any ideas, but she drew a blank. Then last September I had a conversation about it with Bill Spratley of Green Energy Ohio, and sent him Sky Windpower's link. I haven't heard anything more from Bill.

Since the story is now in Wired -- and Sky Windpower is apparently still looking for investors -- let me give it another try. This might be a great opportunity for the region to get a piece of a breakthrough technology. Or, of course, it might be totally bogus. But shouldn't somebody from NEO with appropriate expertise and connections take a look at this possibility, while it's still parked on the ground floor?

Who might that be?

If it's you, please leave a comment or email me and I'll send you everything I've got on the subject.
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