Fundraising failure delivers setback to turbine designer
Saskatoon engineer looks for new backing for vertical-axis wind device
The company hoping to prove the viability of a Saskatoon engineer’s vertical-axis wind turbine appears not to be operating after a fundraising campaign achieved only 15 per cent of its stated goal.
“People just weren’t interested in it,” said Glen Lux, who licensed the technology to the Halifax company, Lux Wind Turbines Inc., after “failing miserably” to raise the capital necessary to build a large prototype turbine himself.
On July 22, the campaign’s original closing date, Lux Wind Turbines had generated $75,000 in investment, 85 per cent short of its $500,000 target, according to its page on the equity crowdfunding site FrontFundr.
The money was intended to build a prototype of Lux’s design — which resembles a giant inverted egg beater — for testing at the Wind Energy Institute of Canada in North Cape, P.E.I., Lux Wind Turbines’ president and CEO Terry Norman said in April.
Norman did not respond to requests for an interview. On July 23, Lux Wind Turbines said on Twitter that its account would close “As (we) did not raise our goal funds.” Multiple sections of the firm’s website were down Wednesday.
“They’re finished, I believe, so I’m on my own again,” Lux said.
While he wasn’t directly involved in the campaign, Luz said he believes it failed because proving his technology is superior to conventional propeller-style turbines could hurt other companies working in the field.
“Big companies do not want new technology to enter their area. They are heavily invested in what they do and they do not want to change,” he said, adding that his turbine’s bizarre appearance could also have contributed to the campaign’s failure.
Big companies do not want new technology to enter their area. They are heavily invested in what they do and they do not want to change.
Lux said he was disappointed by the failure, but he will keep working on the turbine design and plans to build a new prototype this year. Other researchers believe in the technology, and hopefully the industry will, too, he said. “(My technology) is better than what’s out there. It’s definitely better.”