Power Of The Urban Wind: Mariah Power CEO Mike Hess (Part 2)

SM: When did you start Mariah Power?

MH: It was started in August 2005. Ken Rogers and Chris Gabrys had invented a motor that was very efficient. As we looked at the markets to determine where to use the motor, it became clear that we could not compete with the Chinese motors because their cost per motor was so cheap. The only logical place to use it was in a wind turbine.

SM: How did you meet Ken and Chris?

MH: I met them at an angel meeting in Incline Village, Nevada.

SM: They developed the motor in Nevada?

MH: Yes, in Reno.

SM: What happened after you met them?

MH: I came down and met with them in Reno. I talked to them, and after a while they decided I should be running the company. We all bound together and split up the company into thirds. We then started Mariah Power.

SM: What was the financing and early pieces of starting Mariah Power?

MH: I put about $100,000. Ian Rogoff put cash in. The four of us formed the board and we started the first designs. The first design was a Savonius version and it failed. It did not work.

SM: Can you give us the lay of the land of the wind power market at that point?

MH: At that point there were a lot of marketers who were selling products that did not perform, did not meet specifications, or had never been tested. Therefore, the market had a very negative taint in terms of performance. There was Skystream, which was Southwest Windpower’s product initially coming out of ENRAIL as a propeller version. They were announcing it as new technology and a new development.

SM: What was the size of the actual market? Was any wind power being generated in the United States?

MH: Big wind units only. There was very little in the way of small wind systems. There were units greater than 50 kilowatts and a lot of megawatt systems. There were very few small wind systems. There were very small battery charging units that were being used on ships and sailboats. Those were 250- to 400-watt systems. There was not a whole lot in the way of larger kilowatt systems.

SM: What is the case for mid-sized windmills?

MH: The case is about distributive power. With smaller turbines, you can put them where you need them, and you are not required to build a full grid. You can very much follow a cellular telephone build-out approach, which is much more cost effective for developing countries, and new sites that do not have the grid.

That market was well known and understood. People were trying to figure out what would be the solution in that market. Would it be solar, wind, or a hybrid of the two? We decided to go after that market because when we looked we saw 13 million homes in the United States alone that could afford to have and take on a small wind turbine to provide their electricity.

This segment is part 2 in the series : Power Of The Urban Wind: Mariah Power CEO Mike Hess
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