Boulder Wind Power closts $8M financing and expands team

Boulder Wind Power announced it raised $8 million in Series A Preferred Stock financing. New Enterprise Associates (NEA), a leading global venture capital firm, led the round with participation from James J. Maguire, Jr., an individual investor focused on early stage investment in breakthrough renewable energy generation technologies. The funding will be used to complete development, testing and commercialization of Boulder Wind Power’s next generation direct drive technology which is simpler, more efficient and less costly to maintain than alternative wind turbine technologies. Boulder Wind Power’s technology enables the production of electricity at a cost dramatically lower than existing offerings and competitive with fossil fuel energy production costs.

“The financial commitment of NEA and Jamie Maguire is a strong validation of Boulder Wind Power’s breakthrough technology and the incredibly strong team we’ve built over the last year,” said Sandy Butterfield, co-founder and CEO of the Company. “This funding will provide the capital resources we need to prove our direct drive wind turbine technology and bring it successfully to market.”

Butterfield co-founded the Company in 2009 with Jim Smith and Matt Jore after spending the prior 25 years with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) where he was most recently Chief Engineer of the National Wind Technology Center. NREL is the leading US national laboratory focused on the research, development and commercialization of renewable energy technologies.

“Boulder Wind Power’s novel platform technology has the potential to accelerate the wind market by enabling a levelized cost of energy at or below that of fossil fuels,” said NEA General Partner Harry Weller. “Achieving that cost parity will create a disruptive shift in the sector and position Boulder Wind Power very well to capture a meaningful share of the $50 billion global market for wind turbines.”

NEA provided early-stage capital to the Company in 2009. Since then, Boulder Wind Power has attracted a world class team of wind turbine and generator technologists and assembled an outstanding Technical Advisory Board. The team has made great progress in developing the company’s patented design and preparing the company to begin working with wind turbine customers in 2011.