Reworked wind turbines ready for rollout by Mariah

Mariah Power of Reno is bringing its wind turbine to market nearly a year after the initial launch was cancelled and the product taken back to the drawing board.

"It didn't get as much power as we wanted," says Mike Hess, president and chief executive officer. So the design team targeted flaws. It solved mechanical problems involving friction by opening up the airflow approach, eliminated power loss due to vibration by making the pole straighter and stiffer and improved the ability of sensors to accurately sense wind direction by retooling the software.

"All in all," Hess says, "with three people working on it for six months, it was 18 months of labor compressed into a four-month period."

To take the product nationwide, the company lined up 150 resellers who will install demo models, says Hess. With a wholesale price of $3,000, the wind turbine is expected to retail for about $4,000.

Mariah Power expects to get $5 million in funding at the end of March, says Hess. Three investor groups fund the company: Sierra Angles in Incline Village, Sacramento Angels and Keiretsu Forum in San Francisco.

The turbines recently garnered Underwriters Laboratory approval to Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers standards.

"It's the only vertical wind turbine approved by independent testing," says Hess. "And while a competitor, Southwest Wind Power, has a propeller version, Mariah turbines are children-, birds-, and people-safe."

Mariah's Web site calls the product a plug-and-produce wind power appliance. At 30 feet tall and 2 feet in radius, Windspire will produce approximately 1,800 kilowatt hours per year in 11-mile per hour average winds. (Using a 100-watt light-bulb for 10 hours would equate to 1 kilowatt hour.) It includes an internal wireless modem that can transmit power production information directly to the buyer's computer so users can check their power production.

The turbines are embedded in a concrete footing able to withstand a 100 mph wind.

This month the company plans to install 10 units at the home of a landowner in Sacramento on the deepwater port. If impressed with the product's performance, says Hess, the customer will install the turbines in multiples along the levee to power apartments and a golf course.

Mariah Power is also installing the turbines at a private home in Callahan Ranch in Reno, Lamping School in Las Vegas, a commercial building in Louisville, Ky. and a junior college in Hilo, Hawaii.