Blowing in The Wind: How many Soviet-era weapons engineers does it take to make
a windmill?
By Kerry A. Dolan
Forbes
04.21.08
Take 100 former Russian rocket scientists with Ph.D.s, put them in a room and
surely they could develop a windmill company that would entice financing? So
far, nyet.
Richard Halstead, a former IBM programmer who runs a specialty motors company
called Empire Magnetics in Rohnert Park, Calif., wanted to expand into wind
turbines. He got in touch with the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear
Security Administration, which since 1994 has run a program to keep some of the
estimated 60,000 Soviet-era weapons scientists from working for terrorists or
rogue nations. The NNSA pays the salaries, and U.S. companies "employing" them
make matching donations.
There are currently 130 projects under way with 125 U.S. companies involving
former weapons scientists from Russia as well as Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Armenia
and Uzbekistan. Projects range from developing alternative treatments for
epilepsy to creating sensors that can see through the earth. This was the first
windmill project.
Halstead ended up with 100 engineers at the Makeyev State Rocket Center in
Miass, a city in Russia’s Ural Mountains. "We have the equivalent of NASA
designing a windmill for us," says Halstead, whose company has given $2.5
million in cash and in-kind donations to the program.
Over the past five years the Russians developed a prototype of a vertical axis
wind turbine with an innovative airfoil that enables the turbine to self-start.
Previous designs needed a motor.
The Department of Energy has applied for a patent on the technology, and
Halstead’s company has the right to an exclusive license. Despite all that
expertise, though, he says 70 venture capitalists have passed on funding
further development of the wind turbine. "They say this doesn’t offer them the
kind of returns they want. Plus they saw the Russians as a negative. They
wouldn’t want to invest in Russia and get ripped off by the mafia," he says.
Halstead says he’s now hoping to cycle some Chinese money into his company.
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