North Country This Week

POTSDAM — “It captures more wind. We’re essentially wrapping an airplane wing around the rotor,” said Ken Visser, co-founder of Ducted Wind Turbines Inc.

Visser, a Clarkson aircraft design engineering professor, was referring to the unique design of the wind power turbines the company develops. The wind blades of the generator feature a beveled ring encircling the rotor vanes creating a “diffuser augmented shrouded turbine.”

One of the Ducted Wind generators towers over US Route 11 sitting prominently at the company headquarters just outside of Potsdam at 7598 US Hwy 11, giving passersby a full view of the equipment in action.

The ring directs more air flow onto the vanes and allows the wind generator to produce more power.

How much more?

Visser said controlled wind tower tests have the generators producing twice as much power compared to similar size generators of a more traditional, open bladed design. He said real world conditions produce less than that but still are generating about 50 percent more juice versus other kinds of turbines.  

Testing unique designs like the ducted wind tower to get accurate data is difficult. Eventually you have to make units for the field and see what happens, Visser said.

“We’ve had all kinds of things that have happened over the years,” he said.

“It’s always changing,” he said of the design. “We are trying to tune the electronics.”

The unique ring-shaped duct that encircles the blades also turn and direct the turbine into the wind, allowing the design to avoid having a tail which many more traditional wind power generators feature. “It’s super sensitive,” Visser said. “It’s a very clean design.”

The towers are designed with an idea towards low to no maintenance Visser said.

A new Ducted Wind turbine and tower setup can run as high as $25,000 to $35,000 Visser estimated. The price would vary depending on how much site preparation work is required, what style of tower (tip-up or fixed) and other factors.

“I think we are transitioning. I think we are past the start-up stage,” Visser said.

Visser and cofounder Paul Pavone (who now handles business development for the company) formed Ducted Wind in 2016. The company CEO is veteran entrepreneur Joe Dickson. All told, the company currently employs five full timers and four college interns who bring diverse expertise to the company with mechanical and electrical engineering backgrounds and business, sales and marketing expertise.

Visser said Clarkson, which owns the patent on the design, granted him a leave of absence from teaching over the last year to help move the company forward. The engineer and his partners put the time to good use and he said the company now is “really working towards our commercial solution.”

There are now eight of the company’s unique turbines installed in various places including one at the Barry homestead in St. Lawrence County, another in Ausable, and a 3.5-kilowatt generator on the SUNY Potsdam campus off Outer Main Street that was installed there in October on the college’s Sustainability Day celebration.

Ducted Wind is also looking at international markets and places like Puerto Rico and Hawaii and other areas of the globe where reliable sources of electricity are hard to come by.

“We are going to see a shift in the American consciousness at some point,” Visser said, adding that a greater focus and reliance on renewable energy could create a demand for products like the ducted turbine. He said the company’s mission is to create small wind generators as efficiently and affordably as possible.

“But our real goal is to improve the quality of life around the world,” he said. Currently there are billions of people around the globe who do not have reliable electricity. Just installing turbines that could produce enough power for lights at night in impoverished areas could change the literacy rate of the entire country, Visser said.

To watch videos of the turbines in action visit https://www.ductedwind.com/technology/wind-tunnel-test-videos .