History of the Company
SED was founded in April of 2002 to provide professional wind power development and resource assessment expertise to the wind power industry in the Northeastern United States. The company brought together educational and professional experience in utility-scale wind farm development, wind resource analysis and meteorological tower construction. The original company founders, Loren Pruskowski, Kevin Schulte, Ernie Pritchard, Joe Swaha and George McConochie had all attended James Madison University (JMU) together. The five young men then ventured out into the professional world finding employment in the young, but growing American wind power industry.
Schulte and Pruskowski spent the winter of 2001-02 on the phone between Austin, TX and Albany, NY discussing the possibility of starting a company to develop wind energy projects. The development of smaller wind farms in western Pennsylvania, central New York State and in the mature markets of Europe provided a classroom for Pruskowski’s keen, critical mind to learn wind resource assessment and analysis skills. These skills would provide the new company with the foundation from which to grow. The basic understanding of how to measure and predict the wind stands as the base from which all successful wind power companies can grow. Pruskowski’s talent and desire to maximize the financial benefits of wind power projects provided the company with the ability to even contemplate taking wind power from the realm of the corporate bottom line to the individual pocket books of ski resorts, schools and towns. His financial acumen and conservative nature also posed an important counterpoint to Schulte’s take-no-prisoners attitude.
Meanwhile, Schulte was busy learning the craft of building immense, utility-scale wind farms in the western States. Schulte’s passion and intelligence were given space to thrive in the western deserts and in the emptiness he helped to build wind farms that would be the largest the country had yet seen. Schulte managed the development of wind farm sites across the western US including the successful development and construction of the Nine Canyon Wind Project (48.1MW) near Kennewick, WA. Yet it was Schulte’s unique ability to soak up lessons learned during the development of successful wind farms and to mix them with his unbridled confidence to create his own vision of success that would provide his key contribution to the new company.
Pritchard, Swaha and McConochie selected a path that focused more on the hands-on, construction side of the wind industry to reach the starting out point of the SED journey. Separate routes eventually reunited the three young men in the industry as they found themselves working for various wind farm developers throughout the country installing wind resource assessment systems. The lessons gained through this work, building and climbing towers; working in remote, harsh environments; in addition to matching the often times conflicting demands of clients, weather and site conditions provided invaluable skills that would allow the fledgling start-up with the ability to hit the ground running.
2002
In March, Schulte and McConochie moved into a tiny, one and a half bedroom apartment with Pruskowski in Schenectady, NY with the goal of transcribing the idea of SED into a black and white business plan. Three weeks later, Pritchard arrived to put the finishing touches on the plan and to begin the search for capital to breathe life into the document. Pritchard’s valuable connections brought financing to the table and on April 2, 2002 the final paperwork was submitted to the New York State Attorney General’s Office and SED was officially in business.
The first item on the agenda was to secure more comfortable working space which was soon located in Delanson, NY, a rural community just West of Albany. The second item was to bring Swaha to New York so field work could commence.
In the beginning, the company relied on its founders’ utility-scale wind power backgrounds to find work identifying and assessing potential wind farm sites on the East Coast. This consulting and project management work provided an outlet for Pruskowski and Schulte’s educational and professional experience to shine. However, the majority of the business’s income was earned through the installation of meteorological towers, work that took advantage of the tremendous experience and construction skills possessed by Pritchard, Swaha and McConochie. As the meteorological tower installation business grew and the experience of installing towers increased, so did the company’s vision.
The rapid growth of the company’s meteorological tower business provided the financial security that was necessary to develop a new business model that to date had not found traction in the American wind market. SED’s braintrust had latched onto the idea of installing wind turbines to provide electricity directly to serve local energy demands. The plan to install wind turbines to feed electricity into homes was not new, as the energy crisis of the late 1970s provided the impetus and financial incentives to promote this use of the age-old technology. However, using bigger wind turbines to power the larger electricity demands of schools, factories, municipal facilities and even small towns fell well below the radar of most companies that were diving into the American wind industry’s growing wave of success.
SED recognized this barely-served niche in the market that did not have access to the expertise available to the utility-scale wind farm developers. More importantly, SED began to formulate concrete plans to develop economically viable decentralized wind projects based upon the experience of the American utility-scale wind industry.
2003
The first wind turbine that SED helped to install was a 10kW Bergey at Apple Pond Farm in Callicoon Center, NY during the winter of 2003. Several SED technicians took part in a workshop taught by Mick Sagrillo, the leading American expert on the installation of small wind turbine systems, to learn the basics of small turbine technology to compliment their tower experience. Building upon this training, SED then took on the maintenance responsibilities for several 10kW wind turbines to build familiarity and to assess the long-term viability of the machines installed in the harsh northeastern climate.
SED also began to perform in-depth feasibility studies for larger, decentralized wind power projects. These included the first wind farm proposed in the Adirondack Park, for an existing mining/industrial operation and a 100kW, on-site wind project at a horse farm in the lower Hudson Valley region of New York.
2004
By the following year, SED felt confident enough in the technology and in its abilities to begin promoting the service of installing small wind turbine systems. Four of SED’s technicians applied for and were granted eligibility as certified small wind turbine installers under the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority’s rebate program. By the summer, SED had contracted with several homeowners as well as with the State University of New York - Morrisville campus to design, permit and install 10kW wind turbines.
The assessment of larger projects continued to gain momentum as the wind industry was further penetrating the consciousness of the American public. Large corporations, universities and government entities began contacting SED to discuss the possibilities that wind power could provide them and paying contracts provided the incentive to push more resources into this type of work. Met tower’s still provided the bulk of the company’s income but the balance was shifting more and more towards the development of on-site wind projects.
2005
SED had added several new employees and had outgrown its first home in Delanson. A move was in order and the company chose Wayne County, NY because of the work being done there by eco-economic pioneer, Bob Bechtold and the support being provided to new, innovative companies by Peg Churchill, the director of the Wayne County Industrial Development Authority. Bechtold had installed one of the world’s first hybrid wind/micro-gas-turbine on-site generation plants and was a staunch believer in putting his hard-earned money where is heart led him. Luckily for SED, Bechtold believes in renewable energy and in the goal of transforming the country’s aging industrial base to the manufacture and implementation of new, sustainable technologies. His vision is the creation of an Eco-Economy based on the idea that strong businesses can thrive while maintaining a commitment to employees, clients and the environment. Bechtold’s 250kW wind turbine that provides power directly to his company, Harbec Plastics, provided SED with not only inspiration but also a real, working model of on-site wind power’s value.
To date, SED had looked to its trusted pool of friends and former classmates to increase its ranks, but now the time had come to begin a serious recruiting of talent from the local community. The company hired a full time office manager and several technicians to staff the met tower department to provide time to further develop the decentralized wind power models that had taken hold of the company’s long-term vision.
Building a Market for On-Site Wind
With a new space and new energy from the move, SED began to flex its wings through the performance of work designed to further develop the fledgling on-site wind power market. SED teamed up with the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority to undertake a marketing effort that identified the top 250 sites in New York State for on-site wind power projects. This NYSERDA funded marketing effort also provided the opportunity to explore the characteristics that created quality on-site wind projects and for SED to further refine its economic models. Perhaps most importantly, SED identified the market characteristics and pre-cursors that allowed for the development of quality on-site wind projects.
Jiminy Peak – Strong Relationships Make Quality Wind Projects
The understanding of these market conditions led SED into Massachusetts where the company’s first big breakthrough would be found. The Jiminy Peak Mountain Resort called upon SED after a winter where their retail electricity rates had nearly doubled. The Resort’s President and CEO, Brian Fairbank, had long been committed to the environment and the hike in electricity rates pushed him into action. SED’s initial feasibility study of a single wind turbine at the resort performed in 2005 forged a lasting relationship between the two companies that would help to launch SED’s on-site wind power business as well as reinvigorating the Resort.
Power for the People – the Community Wind Model
SED also began to explore the possibilities of developing community wind farms in the northeast to further extend the company’s reach into the budding decentralized wind power market. Almost simultaneously, the company began to work on two projects that would provide the framework for the creation of a community wind development department. The company was awarded a grant to begin studying the development and construction of a community wind farm in rural Albany County, NY that also was designed to translate the success of community wind projects in the Midwestern States to the market conditions and regulations that existed in the Northeast.
SED performed an assessment of the potential benefits of wind power projects in Sullivan County, NY that clearly illustrated the difficulties of developing utility-scale wind farm development in the more densely populated eastern States. Although this assessment identified several quality sites that could support utility-scale wind projects, the experience of developers who have since attempted to follow through on these plans has not been positive. Through these two projects, it became clear that the market provided the ideal setting for community-scale wind projects and SED chose to dedicate time and resources towards further developing this type of wind project.
2006
The work that the company had performed to date, pounding the pavement trying to develop a successful model of decentralized wind projects began to pay off. The number of small/residential wind turbines installed by the company more than doubled and the work assessing the feasibility of sites for on-site wind projects began turning into contracts to manage their design and construction. SED’s work with Jiminy led to the purchase of a 1.5MW from General Electric (GE) although the contract could not secure a delivery date to beat the end of construction season on the mountain. Most importantly, the concept of wind power had penetrated the mainstream consciousness of the country and the thought of using wind power for on-site energy needs began to sound more like a viable option than a vision of the future. Calls from interested parties were pouring in and as SED’s workload grew, so did the need for a long-term plan.
A Plan of a Plan
Up until now, SED’s sole focus had been securing new clients, developing the markets for decentralized wind projects and performing work. The time had come to pay more attention to the inner-workings of the company and to prepare the organization for serious growth. The company outlined its path in a proposal to secure funding for a major business development grant that was eventually awarded. This plan designed a set of services around the company’s vision of being a developer and installer of wind projects that would be able to survive and thrive in the volatile energy generation industry. This grant provided the business with the opportunity to focus time and energy to the formation of a stable company without sacrificing on the performance of current contracts or the development of new work. Although intensive efforts in this arena were not begun, the groundwork for these efforts were laid.
2007
The payoff arrived in the form of a 1.5MW GE wind turbine rotating atop the Jiminy Peak Mountain Resort. The company could finally point to a flagship project to represent the quality behind all of the models, feasibility studies and visions. The ability to point to a completed project made all the difference both internally and in attracting new business opportunities.
Implementation of the Plan
Several new internal groups, including a people department (human relations) and a financial analysis team began meeting to analyze the past and current health of the business. The company committed itself to implementing meaningful changes to the company’s structure and procedures to prepare for the future.
One of these meaningful changes was the decision to stop offering meteorological tower services to the utility-scale wind industry. The company felt that the personnel currently servicing this portion of the business could be better utilized in other areas that were showing greater potential for growth. Additionally, this service did not and had never fit into the company’s long-term vision.
The process of training and integrating this pool of talent into the company is an ongoing effort. The company is truly excited and a bit anxious to see how this transition will play out in the short-term and has confidence that over the long term this evolution will produce beneficial results.
Looking Ahead:
In early 2008 a move to a new office and shop facility was completed providing space to continue to grow and new energy to push the envelope further. Growth is the key word now and ensuring that this is accomplished sustainably will be a constant concern.