China's biggest fan: Success in the air for Hunter firm

Newcastle Herald
Saturday 5/5/2007 Page: 17

HUNTER company Aerogenesis Australia is set to crack the billion-dollar Chinese wind turbine market with a prototype developed at the University of Newcastle that promises to help tackle climate change. The prototype is the result of 20 years of research and development, headed by the university's conjoint associate professor of engineering, David Wood. Dr Wood, who founded Aerogenesis, said the climate change debate had come at the right time for his product.

"We're looking at village electrification projects in China," he said. "China is obviously the cheapest place to manufacture, but it's also the biggest market." He said several Hunter businesses were providing various components for the project. Final-year university students are working on the product's research and development.

"People in various engineering disciplines at the university are providing advice on structural design, computer modelling of blades and manufacture of moulds to make them in," Dr Wood said. "One of the reasons wee been able to get this far is high-level people at the university are involved." Dr Wood said the five kilowatt turbines had five metre- diameter blades, built to sit on an 18-metre-high tower. "The turbines are not suitable for the city, they're for farms and remote locations," he said.

Dr Wood said the company would develop the prototype for at least another few months before signing a licence agreement with Chinese company Jiangsu Changdong Machinery. "They'll pay a licence fee for the technology and we'll teach them how to make the blades and controllers - then they'll start production," he said.

Research and development will remain in Newcastle. The company has applied to the Federal Government to help fund demonstration turbines in China and Australia. Competitors were selling small wind turbines for $30,000, but Aerogenesis aims to go to market at half that price. "We're planning to get them cheap enough to be economically viable to directly connect into the electricity grid and feed power back in," Dr Wood said.