Innovation

The Wind Sphere is a small wind turbine that uses a wind tunnel effect to amplify its wind intake. This effect in science is known as the Bernoulli principle. The Bernoulli principle states that faster air has lower air pressure and slow moving air has high air pressure. Knowing this information the Wind Sphere was designed to condense air from its shroud into the blades creating greater velocity and more power. The small size of the Wind Sphere also gives it an advantage over other sources of wind energy. The Wind Sphere is able to provide more more energy output than any other wind turbine in the industry proportionally. People can now have a source of wind energy on top of their homes and businesses to provide electricity.

The Wind Sphere will do very well providing energy to urban areas and addressing Sustainable Development Goal 11, Sustainable Cities and Communities. With the rapid development of more cities and communities the Wind Sphere will become a first thought when making the places you live and work more sustainable. By using the Wind Sphere in developing cities people will be able to use their resources more effectively and efficiently making the consumers proud to be a part of where they work or live.

Inspiration

The journey of Mark Cironi and Green Energy Technologies began with a conversation with Dr. Spiera who ran the wind tunnel program at NASA Glenn in Cleveland. Cironi being a curious entrepreneur asked Spiera if he could invent something what would it be? He replied that he would invent a wind turbine that uses shroud technology also known as the Bernoulli principle to amplify the wind. This proposal caught Mark off guard as a man coming from IBM from the field of information systems this was a large leap for him to make from industry to industry. Driven by his go-getter entrepreneurial core he decided to go ahead and give it a shot. Mark and his team knew their concept was the first of its kind so there was a lot of excitement surrounding this whole ordeal for them.

There was another aspect of inspiration surrounding his innovation. Not necessarily pertaining to the birth of the inspiration, but the drive to put it into action. That inspiration was the Obama recession which happened to line up right on the timeline with when Mark needed to acquire capital. It is not too common to hear about recessions inspiring people, but in Mark's case it was real. He realized that there is a common misconception at play for entrepreneurs in need of a capital during a recession. That misconception being that there is no money available to be sought after. On the contrary, Mark realized he could use the recession to his advantage in that the true meaning of a recession is the stock market is not producing profitable returns for investors. In comes Mark with sustainable invention of the future offering promising returns. He then approached potential investors from neighbors to executive friends of executive friends, etc. Things were working out for Mark left and right almost as if it were meant to be all while riding the inspirational wave that his entrepreneurial background provided him with.

Overall impact

The overall impact of the innovation is providing clean energy to the users. As use of the Wind Sphere picks up pace over time it can cut down on the use of fossil fuel energy. The benefit is cleaner environments for the beings that inhabit them including the sea life as well as life on land.

In the short term it would not have much of an effect. It is the long-term that is going to be effected in this case. This is so because the Wind Sphere must gain users. Without users it is hard to make an impact. Additionally, the more users the greater the impact.

When it comes to what kind of users, the target of Green Energy Technologies is to pursue community scale winds. Quite literally a community sized wind turbine is installed to a residential rooftop, typically. It will then amplify the wind via the Bernoulli principal thus maximizing the generation of power. Much different from the stereotypical vision of a massive wind farm amongst fields. The Wind Sphere is smaller and more efficient. Perfect for communities.

Business benefit

The Wind Sphere is an invention that is indeed green. The name of the company is Green Energy Technologies. This image is positive for them and will help them build a niche market for potential consumers. They are not only offering an opportunity to use green energy, but they are offering the consumer a money saving opportunity in the long-run which can attract investors.

The Wind Sphere uses a patented shroud technology that amplifies the Wind cycled through. This patented technology provides them with a competitive advantage. Upon AWEA certification, the Green Energy Technologies has an opportunity to corner the community scale winds market, or at least take a large portion via their exploitation of this patent.

Social and environmental benefit

This innovation benefits society and the environment. It benefits society by providing clean energy. This has numerous benefits ranging from health to affordability. The initial investment can be costly, but pays itself off over time through savings. It creates more Independence for users because they are generating their own power and not relying on big power companies with monopolistic tendencies.

It benefits the environment by providing clean energy. Overtime the innovation and hopefully wind energy as an industry can contribute to lowering carbon emissions and our individual carbon footprints. This can hopefully lead to fewer habitats being destroyed from events such as naturally occurring wildfires, glacial melt etc. The Wind Sphere has the potential to help realize the goal of drastically reducing carbon emissions by 2030.

Interview

Mark Cironi, CEO