CHAVA Wind LLC is an innovator in the field of energy technologies and has developed a new business approach with a breakthrough product to succeed in the rapidly growing deployment of smaller-sized Vertical Axis Wind Turbines (VAWTs) around the world.
Chief Executive Officer, Hagen Ruff, tells us more about the firm and its business approach.
“As many regions in the world lack the grid capacity for large wind farms, special incentives are provided for small distributed wind. The highest incentive is provided in Japan, where the central government mandates a Feed-In-Tariff (FIT) of ~50 US-cents/KWh.
“For this, and several other strategic reasons, we are starting the market roll-out in Japan, followed shortly thereafter by several other regions world-wide.”
The advantages of small-to-medium-sized wind turbines include not being in any competition with ‘big-wind’ high-voltage grid-tied wind farms. Large wind projects can only be fed in large-capacity transmission networks and are paid on the basis of wholesale prices.
Smaller wind farms can also focus on smaller and mid-scale applications between 20- 100KW/unit which allows direct use of power and therefore power is paid at retail pricing, (up to eight times higher in many parts of the world).
CHAVA Wind uses a different approach to other similar companies, in that its technology employs Vertical Axis Wind Turbines (VAWTs) as opposed to Horizontal Axis wind Turbines (HAWTs). Using (VAWTs) has clear advantages over HAWTs – they take wind from all directions without the need for a yaw system; VAWT wind-farms will require up to eight times less land compared to HAWTs; and they are more aesthetic.
CHAVA’s technology is the result of a multi-year research and development project, however it faced several challenges, including VAWTs not receiving the same attention and funding thus far compared to ‘bigwind’ HAWTs; and many small group designs showed initial flaws and failures, with efficiency being sub-par.
“It required a focused effort by experts in the field of aerodynamics, engineering, and composite manufacturing to develop a robust design for a 20-year life-span with superior efficiency,” comments Hagen.
The goal of this focused “century project” of Vertical Axis Wind Technology was to develop the next generation of the most advanced small VAWTs, including the highest ever VAWT peak efficiency (43%); the most durable design through extensive modeling and testing and low noise; hydraulic tilt -tower for easy installations and maintenance; the best long-term Leveled Cost of Electricity; and mass-producible design at low cost.
Chava Wind is currently seeking a third and final round of funding in the amount of $2.5M and is expecting to complete the International IEC 61400-2 certification in summer of this year.
Hagen Ruff is Chief Executive Officer of CHAVA Wind. He earned his MS in Mechanical Engineering (Dipl. Ing. FH) from Fachhochschule Wiesbaden in Germany and is responsible for the overall CHAVA Wind offering from mechanical engineering through end-user systems integration as well as sales and marketing.
Hagen started his career at Accenture (previously Anderson Consulting) working on business process work flow challenges and opportunities for improved R.O.I. through process improvement for companies like Sempra Energy, Polaroid, the German Railway, Philip Morris, the Hong Kong Railway KCRC and CPS Energy.
Mr. Ruff started his own Business Intelligence management consulting firm, Business Information Solutions LLC (BIS), with a focus on management consulting, IT consulting, Executive Leadership, and SAP and Enterprise Software integration solutions for large-scale Enterprise Applications for Fortune 100 clients.
His firm, BIS, was acquired by Sapient Inc. (now PublicisSapient and Mr. Ruff was responsible for leading Sapient’s global SAP practice, with a particular focus on the Energy Services marketplace, where companies like Canadian electric utility Enbridge relied upon Mr. Ruff’s process improvement focused methodology for solving the type of energy demand challenges that are creating new opportunities to improve the world’s current energy systems. In addition to his hands on experience, Mr. Ruff has also served as a Board Member and Executive of the Energy Industry focused joint venture Soliance.
In co-founding CHAVA Wind, Hagen Ruff brings his strong passion for solving energy demand challenges and the associated economic, geopolitical, and environmental problems to his background in mechanical engineering as well as information infrastructure integration with a goal of disrupting the strategic delivery market for both enterprise and single user green wind power energy solutions.
Contact: Hagen Ruff – CEO [email protected] 26100 SW 162nd. Ave., Homestead, FL 33031 USA Phone: +1-619-227-3176 www.chavawind.com
