Pika selected for federal program to drive down wind energy costs
file PHOTo / Tim greenway
Ben Polito, co-founder and president of Pika Energy, holds a composite wind turbine at the company's wind turbine test site in Gorham.
Pika Energy, a Gorham-based manufacturer of home wind turbines and wind-solar hybrid systems, is receiving $700,000 in federal funds to develop more efficient turbine technologies and drive down manufacturing costs as part of a federal initiative.
The company announced Friday that it was selected by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, a federal lab dedicated to renewable energy and energy efficiency research and development, to work on the two projects funded by the U.S. Department of Energy.
The funding is part of the NREL's Distributed Wind Turbine Competitiveness Improvement Project, which aims to develop technologies that will allow the U.S. wind industry to better compete in the global wind market, and to lower energy costs in a way that will help it compete with retail electricity rates, according to Pika's announcement.
The projects will allow Pika to upgrade its manufacturing process for key components of its T701 home wind turbine, and to “scale up additional components including the blades, inverter and tower," according to the announcement.
“Today’s small wind turbines need better manufacturing processes and components to make them affordable for a broader market,” Joshua Kaufman, Pika's co-founder, said in a prepared statement. “With this opportunity from NREL, Pika can lower costs, increase production capacity, and help bring distributed wind energy into the mainstream of rural America.”
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