Winds of change in energy

POWER PLAY: Robert Baxter, founder of CBC LLC, creator of Hidden in Plain Sight Wind Energy Systems, makes his pitch at the third Get Started RI competition, held in Warwick. / COURTESY COX BUSINESS
POWER PLAY: Robert Baxter, founder of CBC LLC, creator of Hidden in Plain Sight Wind Energy Systems, makes his pitch at the third Get Started RI competition, held in Warwick. / COURTESY COX BUSINESS

Robert C. Baxter Jr. in 2014 was all set to bring his urban wind-energy system to market when he was diagnosed with lymphoma.

The cancer put Baxter and Warwick-based CBC LLC, the company he owns with his wife, Leslie Walaska Baxter, on a yearlong hiatus.

But Baxter quickly bounced back from the illness and today is cancer-free. Beginning last summer, he started getting his wind-energy company back on track.

In September, CBC won a $10,000 first prize at Cox Business’ Get Started RI Pitch Competition, which is modeled after the popular ABC-TV series Shark Tank.

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His technology, dubbed “Hidden in Plain Sight Wind Energy Systems,” focuses wind into turbines that spin on a vertical axis inside a self-contained structure. The equipment is designed to be placed on top of homes and commercial structures, without the need for large towers or blades.

CBC has finished its design and is currently working with the University of Rhode Island to “make sure it’s going to do what we think it’s going to do,” Baxter said. The biggest differentiator between Baxter’s technology and others in the wind-energy industry, he says, is its ability to effectively capture wind in metropolitan areas.

“What people need is a way to harvest wind energy, and other renewables, closer to the consumer. Instead of harvesting from one big, massive generator, [people] want to have multiple small points of generation and our technology allows us to do it,” Baxter said. “People have played around with it for the last several years, but we believe we have a real good solution.”

The Rhode Island enterprise plans to use Ocean State suppliers for its generators, composite blades and concentrators. At the Get Started RI Pitch Competition earlier this year, Baxter estimated the cost of a commercial unit would be about $3 to $4 per watt, with small units to cost roughly $6 per watt. The typical commercial unit of 100 kilowatts would cost about $30,000 to $40,000 to construct, although there are a handful of state and federal incentives available that could reduce the price.

The company has already built a 5-kilowatt system, which is about enough to power a single home, and Baxter says he plans to scale up to as large as 200 kilowatts. The company expects its preproduction unit should be ready to demonstrate the model to customers by the third quarter of this year.

He also plans to file an application for one of the state’s new innovation vouchers, which award Rhode Island businesses with fewer than 500 employees grants of up to $50,000 to fund research and development assistance from an Ocean State university, research center or medical center.

“We’re really excited to see Rhode Island becoming the center of excellence for wind energy,” Baxter said. •

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