CMNA Power, Developers of High Altitude Wind Technology, Joins the Austin Technology Incubator

CMNA Power harvests new wind energy resources by placing airborne collectors in the form of parawings in the lower troposphere (900-1200ft), where the highest class of wind power exists, and transfers that power to a proprietary generation and control system on the ground to produce electricity.

“This system has many advantages over the current solution, large steel wind turbines, which dominate the low altitude market,” said CNMA Power CEO, Craig Varrichio. “The ease of wind capture through parawings leads to lower capital cost and increased wind consistency. Our solution has a smoother intraday power curve and is easier to balance on the grid, and the increased availability of high altitude winds allows for closer proximity to urban areas reducing transmission congestion.”

“High altitude wind technologies using airfoils and parawings, have been validated in other markets such as kite-propelled ships” said Mitch Jacobson, Co-Director of the ATI: Clean Energy Incubator. “The Texas electricity market alone is $34 billion and growing. After looking at the company’s strategy to harvest high altitude wind to produce electricity at a lower capital cost, we think CMNA Power is on the forefront of a burgeoning market.”

CMNA Power is currently field testing a 3 kW prototype with plans for a 250 kW full-scale model. “CMNA Power will need to expand its strategic partnerships to finance, test and deploy the larger prototype,” commented Varrichio. “Because of ATI’s connections in the industry and long track record of helping its members attract investment capital, partnering with ATI’s Clean Energy Incubator was a natural decision. They have already helped us strengthen our value proposition to attract investor interest from both private and public sources.”

The Austin Technology Incubator is a nonprofit unit of The University of Texas at Austin that harnesses business, government and academic resources to provide strategic counsel, operational guidance and infrastructure support to its member companies to help them transition from early stage ventures to successful technology businesses. Since its founding in 1989, ATI has worked with over 200 companies, helping them raise close to $750 million in investor capital. ATI is a key program of the IC2 Institute at The University of Texas at Austin. 

CMNA Power is a renewable energy company and developers of a robust, simple system to cost-effectively harvest new wind resources by placing collectors in the form of parawings, or kites, in the lower troposphere (900-1200ft), where the highest class of wind power exists, and transfers that power to proprietary generators on the ground to produce electricity. 

www.cmnapower.com

www.ati.utexas.edu