Warren Stoll joins Flower Turbines, Inc., as COO. Trained as a lawyer, he has a record of success with many types of companies. He founded a software firm that was sold to Microsoft. He raised venture capital for other companies and brought them from inception to sale. He also has extensive real estate experience, and, more recently, made a successful exit from a combined fintech and healthtech company.

Peter Blokdijk from the Port of Rotterdam and Flower Turbines EU Director Roy Osinga cut the ribbon for the expansion of the Flower Turbines workspace.

Flower Turbines plans to use the space to develop, test, and assemble its small wind turbines and e-mobility charging solutions, and to enhance the creativity of its products. 

This shows the manufacturing PCT international patent discussed a few updates ago in actual use. Also, a few updates ago, we showed the problem of connecting round blades to the shaft without causing ripples or loss of strength at the point of connection. The photos below are from the first blades produced the new way according to our patent.

Our patent involves making pockets of similar thickness to and continuous with the main part of the blade. We embedded something that looks like a thumbtack inside that pocket and coated it on the outside (not a necessary step, but it looks nice) with fiberglass. The first picture is an outside view of the blade. The second picture is an outside view of the blade with the coating over the pocket. The third picture shows the inside of the blade, where it can connect firmly to a strut without causing ripples and areas of weakness in the blades.

Some of our small Tulips are now on display in our Long Island office. Click here for a short video walk through: https://vimeo.com/547854125.

The silver-colored metal is the base for one of our small installation poles.

We bought an ebike for employees to use for personal or business errands during the workday, and for testing with our ebike charging stations.

One of our resellers in Frankfurt Oder, Germany, installed this charging pole for the national railway. Click here for a short video. https://vimeo.com/546034222. Our charging systems can help be part of the mass transit infrastructure. It’s sometimes called the “last mile” problem. For example, what does someone do when he gets off the train? Take his car or his bike?

This very important patent, patenting one of the reasons for the higher efficiency of our turbines, has now been filed in the following countries: US, Canada, EU, Japan, India, China, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, UAE, Australia, Mexico, and South Africa.

New PCT patent on blade manufacturing

Flower Turbines just filed an international phase PCT on how to make improved connections from the blades to the shaft.

This picture shows one of the current ways of connecting them: using flat rods and washers (2) against the curved surface of a blade. You can see the ripples (3) formed in the blade from this approach.

Our solution to this is to make the blades with similar thickness pockets and a flat base to these pockets that enables a strong fit that doesn’t shorten the blades’ lifespan.

Flower Turbines’ contribution to the global energy transition has been acknowledged by Euronews!

Our innovative ways of producing renewable energy, with a focus on environmental friendliness and eco-art, have caught the eye of this prestigious international platform in regards to eco-innovation.

In an interview with Euronews Green, EU director Roy Osinga discusses the ways in which Flower Turbines aims for a greener world with our wind turbines and charging products. 

“The future of energy transition is that there is no one source of energy. So we have to use multiple sources. The idea is to combine efficiency with art,” Roy Osinga explained.

Sustainability, environmental friendliness and eco-art are the pillars on which Flower Turbines stands. Let’s help make the world a greener place, powered with sustainable energy.

You can read the video news article on the Euronews website here. https://www.euronews.com/green/2021/05/16/are-tulip-shaped-wind-turbines-the-future-of-renewable-energy

Flower Turbines has started producing its own electronics, first for the smallest turbine size. We produced 10 generator prototypes for testing and use in our products, like the ZW bike charging pole. They are specially designed to be built with high quality materials and have voltages capable of working with low wind speeds. We can also sell it to other companies in the future. The picture below shows the testing and then a closer view. Rated production: 100 watts. It goes up to 300 watts. One of the stress tests was spinning it at 250 rpm (everyday use expected to be in the range of 25-100) for 30 minutes, and the temperature went up by only a few degrees. This mass-produced product cost will be below that of current Far East prices after we finish the initial investment in tooling. This is how our investors are enabling US manufacturing and better control of our supply chain.

Today we packed three of our SL charging poles for delivery to a French transnational train company for one of their locations in Belgium. We will share some pictures once they are installed. We can’t wait to have more of our charging solutions pop up throughout Europe in the future!

Look at the fiery red colors of our wind turbines! 

This week, we have installed two beautifully colored wind turbines on top of the industrial complex of Roodhart in the harbor of Rotterdam. 

With two more Flower Turbines to be placed here soon, Roodhart’s sustainability ambitions cannot be overlooked. The turbines have their beautiful company colors – a passionate bright red, as the company’s name means “Red Heart” in Dutch and symbolizes the passion and the name of this family business.

As a European business with its roots in the Rotterdam harbor, the company specializes in industrial pumping systems and mechanical seals. Like us at Flower Turbines, the people at Roodhart put great value in sustainability and feel that their industry should aim for a greener world. We at Flower Turbines couldn’t agree more. To show this to the world, our vertical wind turbines are a great contribution to Roodhart’s sustainability ambitions. 

Arthur Bayzer (Chief Engineer) and Dr. Farb (CEO) visited potential manufacturing sites in the US this week. One of them even produced a prototype base for discussion prior to our arrival. These pictures shows Arthur standing near it and inspecting it.

Flower Turbines hit the $2 million mark on its RegA+ crowdfunding campaign after just 3 months. This allows us immediate steps to grow the company faster. One current goal is North American manufacturing in addition to our current EU manufacturing. We are about to start our installations in the US market and are developing our US team.  This photo shows 5 wind turbines that have been packed up in Rotterdam and are on their way to the ranch of a movie star in Los Angeles.

Flower Turbines has been awarded the “Solar Impulse Efficient Solution” Label, a proof of high standards in profitability and sustainability to protect the environment.

To receive the “Solar Impulse Efficient Solution” Label, the Wind Tulip was thoroughly assessed by a pool of independent experts according to 5 criteria covering the three main topics of Feasibility, Environmental and Profitability. All labelled solutions are part of the #1000solutions portfolio that will be presented to decision-makers in business and government by Bertrand Piccard, Chairman of the Solar Impulse Foundation. The aim of this initiative is to encourage the adoption of more ambitious environmental targets and fast-track the implementation of these solutions on a large scale.

 Here is a link to the page about us on their website: https://solarimpulse.com/efficient-solutions/wind-tulips#

Here are some pictures of the amazing equipment our contractors in Nebraska will be using to produce circuit boards for our charge controllers. (The product should be moving in the next few months from design to prototype phase. A charge controller controls the generator and converts its output into DC.)

Here are pictures before we began our tour of the electronics manufacturing plant in Nebraska. They had one of our Tulips in their entry hallway. In the group picture: third from left: Dr. Farb, CEO; fourth from left: Arthur Bayzer, chief engineer; fifth from left: Jim Boyle, consulting electrician.

Tom Mulder is concentrating on our social media activities. He has a bachelor’s in Communications and Media.

Andrei Dita is an electrical engineer with an additional diploma in mechatronics. One of his recent projects was making a navigation device for the visually impaired.

Adriana Nieves is joining us in our US office as a general administrator. Her previous experience includes business development for a solar company and working in the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development.

We are just starting to rent at a location in Long Beach, NY. It’s a nice location, and we are in a windy area, so we are close to a large number of potential clients. Long Island, NY is one of our priority markets because electricity prices are high and winds are good along the long coastline.

Our sales for January 2021 were around $95,000. The following graph shows cumulative sales from the first half of 2020 next to sales from January 2021.

The important detail is that we are starting much higher than last year.

On March 3rd, 2021, Dutch Minister (Secretary) of Defense Ank Bijleveld-Schouten visited the Innovation Event of MINDbase, a center for stimulating defense innovation.

At the event, Flower Turbines EU director Roy Osinga presented its vertical wind turbines, e-bike charging stations, and a special mobile energy platform to the Minister. Object of research is also the turbines and less radar distortion.

See here (https://www.defensie.nl/actueel/nieuws/2021/03/03/minister-bijleveld-onder-indruk-van-innovaties-bij-mindbase) the link to the article (in Dutch) on the official website of the Ministry of Defense.

Patent Application No. 201780055226.3, Rooftop Wind Turbine Flow Improvements, was just granted in China. The same patent is currently pending in the US. Its significance is making rooftop structures such as aerodynamic spoilers, that improve flow to the turbines on the top of a building.

Here is a link to a video of our wind turbines on one of our e-bike charging stations. https://vimeo.com/516976674

Flower Turbines was accepted into the international startup organization Startup Grind and the World Alliance of Efficient Solutions, run by the Solar Impulse Foundation.

We would like to introduce you to two new employees at the EU office. One replaces Bharat Srinivas.

Manolis Serdakis-Tsioukanis is a mechanical engineer who loves sustainable energy and hopes to see our products in his native Greece.

Joris Feijen is a graduate of the Technical University of Delft with multiple skills in mechatronics, aerospace, and system engineering.

Here is a photo of the combined wind/solar chargers after installation.

With all the interest in large wind turbines in Texas freezing, we thought you would enjoy a recent video montage of our turbines in different locations in a snowstorm: https://vimeo.com/513281831

Here is a picture of one of our solar e-bike charging poles installed in Portugal.

February 3, 2021: Arno Bonte, the council director on sustainability and energy transition from the municipality of Rotterdam, virtually toured Flower Turbines' EU offices at RDM Innovation Dock. Mr. Bonte and his colleagues wanted to see at first hand the developments at Flower Turbines, under the guidance of EU Director Roy Osinga. We discussed our shared vision in the energy transition, sustainable mobility, and the Smart Energy Systems program (SES). As part of of this SES program, Flower Turbines (with support of the city) will install a 6-meter-high turbine in the port of Rotterdam. To be continued ...

Here is a link to the recording: https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/F8CdDZ7QmxpKL0ZoVLTnMVEupx7KimGIsVkZ7g8eLclfmTtXtQQ6bhIXrayWOyM.aE2TBf8VMiIYEuQg

 This investment is speculative, illiquid, and involves a high degree of risk, including the possible loss of your entire investment.

Flower Turbine’s patent on the ratios of the different parts of our Wind Tulip turbines recently received an acceptance of novelty and inventive step under the Patent Cooperation Treaty in the “International Preliminary Report on Patentability”. This patent is an important basis for our creating more efficient and simultaneously quiet turbines; the concept is that certain blade relationships, air spaces, tip speed ratios, etc., when correctly combined, make its category of turbine substantially more efficient than it was before. This is what we were waiting for before submitting the patent for national phase in important countries or groups of countries throughout the world. (The patent was already submitted in Argentina, which is a large country not a member of the Patent Cooperation Treaty.)

The port of Rotterdam is committed to combating climate change and wants to play an important role in the global energy transition. Therefore they pay attention to sustainable entrepreneurs.

 Flower Turbines was selected as one of these sustainable entrepreneurs. We walked the green carpet at the Rotterdam Drydock Company (RDM) and inspired the audience about the global potential of our small Wind Turbines.

To see the video and read the interview, see link: Global rise of small wind turbines from the port of Rotterdam | Port of Rotterdam

Antenna Group published its evaluation of the top trends in cleantech at https://www.antennagroup.com/blog/five-cleantech-trends-to-watch-in-2021?_hsmi=107195177&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9dQyq_el-r4I5X3AkqPEC4I2DA_YJpGpkLXBQddBiciVvdKEvzZ4H16cQqrvuxaIITVOl5vottQKW-U5tI3eoZIeV3Jg

We are in both renewable energy and mobility, two of the top themes.

Here is a photo of one of our charging station installations in Europe.

Here is a photo of one of our charging station installations in Europe.

Here is a photo of one of our charging station installations in Europe.

Our deep thanks to our wonderful investors who are making this round successful already. The money coming in already enables us to initiate some important things:

1. We are developing the electronics for our turbines at a faster rate. This is important because if we can exactly match the generators and charge controllers to our turbines, it allows our aerodynamic innovations to shine better. Currently, we are using off the shelf electronic products. So now, we will have more efficient products, at a lower cost than those made in developing countries because of the use of molds and tooling instead of hand wiring and so on, with supporting a labor force in the US where the workers are paid a solid wage, with better features like corrosion proofing at the basic production level instead of later coatings and seals, and we may even be able to sell the products to other companies.

2. We are planning improvements to our e-bike charging product line that will make them higher quality and more useful.

3. We are interviewing manufacturers for a second site of manufacturing, in the US market in addition to current production in the EU market. That will take money for early production runs at low quantity.

4. We have some patent filings coming up soon.

In a future update, we’ll talk about plans for using future money that comes in after this.

Here is a photo of an installation of 3 of the smallest Wind Tulips on a roof in Amsterdam

The following graph is based on data logged over several years at a low wind speed area compared to an average wind turbine. Points to pay attention to:

1. Most wind turbines start turning at 3 meters per second. This Wind Tulip started to produce power at just over 1 meter per second.

2. This is smaller and an earlier design than our current large model. So we expect even better results from our current large version.

Left: A bicycle charging pole customized for a customer in Denmark

Upper right: A wind measurement project for a city. This shows how we are adding wind-related services to our income mix. This is the first one, but we hope there will be more.

Lower right: An off-grid solar bike-charging project in a park.

Flower Turbines was just granted a patent in India titled Two Bladed Vertical Axis Wind Turbines. This patent is already granted in the US, Canada, EU, Australia, and Israel.

This investment is speculative, illiquid, and involves a high degree of risk, including the possible loss of your entire investment.

We started in Q3 making a webinar for investors of $2500 or more. We will be separately emailing those who are on our list for that. Since it is likely we made some mistakes, due to incomplete processing of investments from this round showing up, and due to the waiting list status from the previous round, please email info@flowerturbines.com if you did not receive an invitation by the end of the day on January 20 and you think you should have. If you think you are eligible, please indicate in your email which round you invested in so we can check it.

Flower Turbines was the winner of a tender issued by the city of Hellevoetsluis. Part of that was our recent installation of two wind turbines on top of a container. We simultaneously provide the marina with clean energy and extra storage space. The city staff commented favorably on the quality of the workmanship and installation.

Here are photos of the installation.

IMPEL+, a program funded by U.S. Department of Energy’s Building Technologies Office, and implemented by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, chose Dr. Farb, CEO, and Flower Turbines for its 2021 Innovators program and the project "Building-integrated Wind Turbines". You can read about the program at https://impel.lbl.gov/2021-innovators.

Flower Turbines is mentioned in Entrepreneur Magazine online and in print because of being chosen as one of the Most Fundable Companies in the US. https://www.entrepreneur.com/slideshow/359854