For the past eighteen months, Wilson TurboPower has been conceiving a system for generating economical and clean electricity from CSP that has fundamental advantages over all current solar energy approaches. That potential was recently acknowledged by the DOE with a contract to further develop Wilson’s proprietary CSP technologies.
This new mission has necessitated several changes at Wilson, including a new company name that better reflects the organisation’s current focus on solar technologies. Wilson Solarpower Corporation, as the company will now be known, also has a new management team with Doug Zingale joining Wilson as CEO. Bruce Anderson will continue as president and chairman.
“Doug is exceptionally prepared and enthusiastic about leading the company at this exciting stage of our new venture,” stated Mr. Anderson. Prior to joining Wilson as CEO, Doug Zingale enjoyed a highly distinguished law career at the nationally prominent firms of Mintz Levin, Greenberg Traurig, and Foley Hoag, where he established his reputation as an effective deal manager and a leading advisor to companies raising venture capital. Doug then pursued his growing interests in business development as a General Manager at Microsoft where he analyzed new product offerings, prepared business cases, developed go-to-market strategies, and negotiated synergistic joint ventures.
However, Doug is not new to the Wilson team. In 2000, together with Bruce Anderson, Doug co-founded Ignite Technology Ventures with a mandate to commercialise breakthrough technologies. One of the companies ‘incubated’ by Ignite is Wilson Solarpower.
“Prospects for a successful business are excellent. Wilson’s novel system design is game changing and has a product development pathway that will enable Wilson to compete effectively against both current and anticipated solar technologies,” said Mr. Zingale on accepted the position of CEO.
Heating air instead of liquid
The Wilson CSP concept concentrates and captures the sun’s energy to heat air – instead of water as used by other systems – that then drives a jet-like turbine to produce electricity. The unique Wilson Solarpower System™ employs proprietary Wilson technology and a Brayton cycle gas turbine capable of producing ‘dispatchable’ electricity on demand, day or night, regardless of weather. When solar energy is not available, stable power generation is maintained by drawing on heat that the system generates and stores during daylight – or by switching, as needed, to an available conventional fuel (natural gas) or a biofuel (landfill methane and other waste gases).
To reduce manufacturing costs and minimize onsite deployment, the complete Wilson Solarpower System is designed to be factory produced and shipped operation-ready to the site. And the modular power units can be configured in clusters for a wide range of applications from distributed energy and CHP installations up to utility-scale power plants.
In May 2010, the DOE awarded Wilson a contract for up to $3.7 million to further develop the Wilson Solar Receiver™ and a dry-heat storage system, the Wilson Solar Battery™. These two proprietary technologies will significantly increase efficiency of the Wilson Solarpower System™ to permit operation at a lower cost than most other alternative energy systems.
“Our concept was selected from among many credible CSP technologies, all competing for a very limited funding pool,” highlights Wilson president, Bruce Anderson. “This award affirms the potential of Wilson’s breakthrough energy system, provides the funding to advance our technologies, and bolsters our enthusiasm for success.”
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