Boosting Wind Energy

November 24, 2008

A new Israeli company IQWind proposes a new solution. The company has designed a new gearbox that promises to squeeze the most energy from both new and existing wind turbines. “IQWind has solved a painful problem in wind turbines and allows them to work in an efficient way while significantly reducing the costs. Because when you add our gears in, other components become redundant and can reduce the price of building a wind turbine by 25%,” IQwind founder and CEO Gideon Ziegelman, tells ISRAEL21c.

Astorre Modena, a general partner, adds that the technology is “an elegant, smooth and solid gearbox that allows you to change gears without disconnecting the transmission,” he says, noting that “there is much more meat,” to the technology’s innovation that he can’t disclose. Modena says that the company expects to have a beta test site by March and another two years before the gearbox goes into production.

Israel has strong expertise in solar thermal and water technology, owing its success in clean technology to the massive influx of Russian immigrants, says Modena who remarks that in general, clean technology is a difficult field, requiring cooperation between multiple disciplines: “Israelis are good that,” he says.

For more information: www.iqwind.com

Excerpts from an article by Karin Kloosterman,
www.israel21c.org

 

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