Today we’d like to introduce you to Linda Haar.
Linda, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
One beautiful fall day in October 2001, I was standing on the subway platform waiting for my train connection to Government Center where I had worked in environmental and urban planning for 30 years, and was then director of planning and development for Boston I loved my work, but it was crowded and hot in the subway and I started thinking about the horrific events of 911 just a month earlier. I would rather have been outdoors hiking with my husband. I turned around, got back on the train toward home, went up to my husband’s office on the third floor of our house, and said, “Life’s short, it’s a glorious day, let’s go climb Mt. Monadnock.”
That day we decided to change our daily grind. And to form our own company which would focus on tangible positive contributions to the world. We both already cared deeply about the diversity of life on earth and global warming issues, and we were passionate about being outdoors. I brought environmental and public health planning and technical skills, as well as team building skills and patience to the table. Jonathan has had decades of experience in large scale design and construction and in community housing development, and is an avid inventor.
It was a big leap for both of us and I thought about how to clear out the brain cobwebs and make the transition. I applied for and was granted a Loeb Fellowship at the Harvard Graduate School of Design where I would have virtually full access for year to all that Harvard has to offer. With this fellowship, a fellow’s significant other also can participate in academic exploration. We were thrilled about this opportunity. This was one of those times in life when you believe you do have a guardian angel. Course work in biodiversity was definitely at the top of my list.
Our first joint project was being contracted to create the design and exhibit programs for a botanical garden for the City of Boston. Much to our and many others’ disappointment, the garden was never funded, but it did lead us closer to our more tangible work. We questioned how we would heat/cool/run such a facility without contributing more to the use of fossil fuels? We decided that our respective skills would enable us to design and build a green energy alternative – a vertical axis wind turbine which would be of a small enough scale to avoid the issues of mega-wind turbines, but powerful enough to not just be window dressing, and small enough in its components to be shipped around the world.
We incorporated Eastern Wind Power and brought together an amazing team of aeronautic, mechanical and electronic engineers from Wentworth Institute and Northeastern University to work with us. Our first mechanical engineering intern stayed with us for five years after he graduated to see the project through. It involved several years of design, metallurgy and carbon fiber work, trial and error, and physical labor. But our final product has been up and running and producing energy at the Martha’s Vineyard Airport. We have conducted a variety of electronic tests as well as strength tests of the turbine, including backing up a plane to the turbine in order to produce 100 mph winds (an unusual way to test a turbine, but a rare advantage of having your prototype at an airport. EWP has been awarded seven US and European patents. We have been primarily self-funded, but we are now ready for scale production which will require partnering with a manufacturing entity. (See www.easternwindpower.us)
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
It has not always been a smooth road. While there were some amazing circumstances like being welcomed at the airport and finding expert creative engineers, getting funding for a start-up in green energy is nearly impossible. There is a lot of “greenwash” talk, but funding either goes to large existing companies, and venture capitalists are looking for the next one-year turnaround software success. Even green energy oriented funders want to see a few years of sales first. As an entrepreneur you mistakenly believe that everyone should have the same level of enthusiasm and belief in your product as you do. A very unrealistic assumption. It has been very challenging financially, and I do not recommend self-funding. But our desire to develop this green energy technology won out.
Permitting for new technology, particularly equipment of this scale and power, is also very challenging. We were ready to start the certification process, but it was incredibly expensive for a start-up, and there were no US protocols for testing a vertical axis type turbine. We were in a bureaucratic nightmare for quite a while and needed to be very patient and creative.
What has been especially rewarding and surprisingly forthcoming, and enabled us to complete project was getting pro bono assistance. The Boston area community is strongly supportive of environmental and green energy initiatives. We have one of the finest Boston aeronautic engineers, heads of two large scale Boston structural engineering companies, and a patent attorney on our Board working with us pro bono. We made great use of the Northeastern Co-op program where there were always highly skilled and creative graduate level engineers wanting to work on our project. The Martha’s Vineyard Airport has been a perfect secure site for prototype development, and the Massachusetts Wind Technology Testing Center has conducted significant technical testing for us. The public’s good will and support kept us motivated.
Another outcome of being self-funded that made it challenging is that we had to do as much as we could on our own. I don’t think we expected how much physical labor it would involve. We learned new skills as needed, which was always fun. Jonathan learned how to weld in order to assemble the 2000 lb. steel base for the turbine, and has become quite knowledgeable in metallurgy and electrical engineering. We spent many scorching hot days and freezing cold days working outside on the open asphalt at the airport, often digging trenches for cables (my personal favorite activity). We also had to become adept at understanding and operating the complex software system which we developed with Siemens Industry. We became skilled at developing patent language, and Jonathan’s climbing skills were absolutely necessary for safe assembly.
We had to be innovative. We when we wanted to conduct ice build-up testing on our blades, we immediately thought of our winter hikes up Mt. Washington. We got permission from the Chief Ranger of the Mt. Washington State Park to mount a section of a turbine blade on top of their visitors’ center to record what happened under different winter conditions. Jonathan was in heaven as we were being blown off the top of the roof trying to bolt down the blade.
One very important aspect of this project which we did not anticipate was how long it would take, and how having your own small entrepreneurial company means that you are constantly working. There can be a lot of very tedious work and you have no one to turn to but yourselves. I have become more adept at filling out government forms and researching grants than I ever really wanted to be. So you need to be really invested!
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Eastern Wind Power story. Tell us more about the business.
Eastern Wind Power is a Research and Development company. Our team’s goal is to help to ease problems in the natural environment – in the broadest sense of the word, meaning people as an integral part the environment. Our first tangible project was developing the Sky Farm 50kW wind turbine. The turbine is designed to provide renewable electricity for basic needs – lights, communication and clean water, in under-served communities. It also can be used in dense urban areas where traditional large scale wind turbines cannot be sited.
We are very proud that our team was able to design/build this very challenging technology which has alluded many turbine developers. Vertical access wind turbines are not a new concept, but have not been developed as a modern technology with smart software and electronics until now.
One of the aspects of our project which we are most proud of is that Siemens Industry, one of the largest electronics manufacturers in the world, chose our start-up company to work with. Siemens was looking for a turbine partner with whom they could prototype their small wind inverter. They interviewed companies around the US, and chose Eastern Wind Power because of the quality and design of our turbine, and the depth of our team.
Our latest project, which we are conducting through our not-for-profit, is close to final design. It is a transportable Family Surgical Clinic intended to respond to one of the most significant public health issues in the world – over 5 billion people in developing countries have no access to affordable safe surgery to treat common issues which are life threatening if left untreated. We are now reaching out to NGOs and foundations focused on global health to try to move this forward. We brought together a great medical/surgical team, but we are going to need a tremendous amount of good will and coordination to make this a successful project. Just one surgical unit can save 2000 lives a year. So siting and supplying one surgical unit would be a success for us. (See www.darwinproject.org)
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
Good luck, fate, whatever one wants to call it, has definitely played a huge part in my life and business. I was fortunate to have been born into a great family. We lived on a small farm in southern New Jersey where I could roam free with my friends playing in the fields, and exploring the woods. I believe that this experience gave me my interest in nature and in the value of small communities.
In terms of my career which I began as an environmental planner, I applied to work for the City of Boston and had the right educational background just as they were forming and staffing an environment department in the 1970’s. That was lucky timing, but I also worked hard to get there, paying my own way through Boston University concentrating in earth science.
Of course my biggest stroke of luck was meeting Jonathan some 30 years ago, and sharing the same philosophy of social and environmental justice. In spite of our very different personalities, these shared goals have enabled us to take risks together in our work.
We hope to have the same good luck moving our Family Surgical Clinic forward.
Contact Info:
- Address: 13 Arlington Street
Cambridge, MA 02140 - Website: www.easternwindpower.us
- Phone: 617-797-6611
- Email: lhaar@easternwindpower.us
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