It began with a sketch on a napkin. TechCrunch has heard that AirLoom Energy is now raising an extra $12.7 million.
A statement with the government says that the money came from 21 investors, but it doesn’t name the backers. A request for word from the company did not get a response right away.
The new company in Wyoming has a unique way of using wind power. Instead of putting huge turbines on top of towers that are more than 100 meters tall, it connects vertical blades to wires that run along an oval-shaped track 25 meters (82 feet) above the ground. The business wants to make energy for $13 per megawatt-hour, which is more than 50% less than regular onshore wind.
Kiteboarding, a hobby of the company’s founder Robert Lumley, gave the idea for the course its shape. He drew the idea on a napkin for the first time at a wind energy meeting in Berlin.
A lot of the money that is expected to be saved comes from AirLoom’s low image. The bigger wind turbines of today are more efficient, but moving the huge towers and blades can be hard and needs to be planned for up to a year in advance. The smaller size of AirLoom’s parts makes them easier to make, move, and put together on-site.
The last money that AirLoom got was a $4 million seed round in November from Lowercarbon Capital, MCJ Collective, and Breakthrough Energy Ventures, which was started by Bill Gates. Also at the same time, it hired Neal Rickner as its new CEO. Rickner had been COO of Makani Energy, an Alphabet company that wanted to use kits to collect wind energy.
Rickner told TechCrunch in November that the next step for the company is to improve the technology so that it can build a 1-megawatt test, which he had planned to do by 2026. The extra money will probably help pay for that project.
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