Dallas, Texas-based BroadStar Wind Energy today emerged from stealth at WINDPOWER 2008 and revealed its AeroCam Turbine, which it claims can be deployed almost anywhere—including urban environments—and to the competition's chagrin, at a cost-effective $1 per watt installed.

Five years in the making, the AreoCam was designed for commercial applications and aims to compete with large solar rooftop installations and looks to be included in existing wind farm installments.

According to serial entrepreneur and CEO Steve Else, BroadStar is an attractive alternative to solar where the getting energy from the sun isn’t an option.

What if there’s not enough wind?

Else says that’s not a problem. “Our installations are at the concentration of flow at the power pit of a building. We can achieve a 30 per cent increase of the speed of the wind at the line of the power pit,” says Else.

“The sun doesn’t shine everywhere, but the wind doesn’t blow everywhere either.”

With the U.S. Department of Energy issuing a report last month stating that the wind industry growth in the U.S. could be more successful with governmental incentives (see Wind power push could depend on incentives), this year's WINDPOWER conference set on proving the industry will charge agressively forward.

To provide the industry further fodder for growth, a wind vendor survey by Germany's Husum WindEnergy suggested the industry expects to grow extensively over the next several years and anticipates 170,000 MW of wind turbines to be installed—up from a reported 20,000 MW in 2007.

While BroadStar is barely entering its pilot stage, Else is convinced that once his turbines are deployed and certified, they’ll have a lot of turbines in places where conventional technology cannot be deployed due to the scale of equipment involved.

Currently BroadStar says it is in final negotiation for pilot programs for two Fortune 100 companies and hopes to have a total of six pilot programs across different industries this year. “The initial pilots are in the 40 KW range,” says Else.

The pilot programs are to last six months and have 4-6 turbines installed.

Else says BroadStar will offer the commercial rooftop turbines to customers as a buy or lease option in the form of a power purchase agreement. Right now he’s seeing equal interest from companies.

“You need huge cranes and a big [turbine] plan to maintain a megawatt class of turbines,” says Else. “Economies of scale for doing a one-off turbine just aren’t there. Ours are smaller that don’t require big plants and equipment to work on it. They can be locally deployed and maintained.”

Reno, Nevada-based Mariah Power CEO Mike Hess saw the BroadStar AreoCam turbines on display at WINDPOWER, and isn’t sure how the turbines will work, based on what he saw.

“I’m kind of speculative on what it will cost,” says Hess. “Basically if they’re going to put 100 KW on a building, the stress will be on the building. I’d like to see the pilot test results before I go with a program.”

Mariah Power, a venture-funded startup (see Two funds expand cleantech plans) and one of three small wind turbine companies at the conference, formally introduced its own microwind product today and claims it already has orders for 2,000 units.

In development for three years, one Mariah Power turbine costs $5,000 dollars installed, and claims to run approximately $4 per watt.

Currently the turbines produce 2 KW hours per year, representing 30 per cent of the energy of an average American household, with the company expecting a 3 KW system in 9 months, which according to Hess would produce 90 per cent of the energy required by an average household.

Hess says 75 per cent of Mariah’s current business is in countries with little to no infrastructure. “Our turbines are very easy to install and are low in cost, which is great for folks with little infrastructure,” said Hess.

Other wind medium-to-small turbine equipment companies include Southwest Windpower, Bergey Windpower, Solar Wind Works and Entegrity Wind Systems, just to name a few.

BroadStar’s AeroCam, which was designed with airplane wings in mind, promises to pick up the wind drafts that hit buildings and then move upward-catching currents as gentle as 4 mph in excess of 80 mph.

BroadStar says these turbines are ideal for both the urban and suburban settings and are ideal for high and low-rise buildings, commercial rooftops and parking structures, warehouses, and shopping malls and elsewhere.

BroadStar’s urban 10 KW units—the smallest of the units—is to sell for $25,000 dollars.

The company says it also has opportunities in existing wind farms (termed infill) and developing micro-wind farms, as its turbines can be installed close to the ground and closer together for a higher power yield than traditional wind farms.

BroadStar employs 20 people and, in addition to Texas, has offices in Beijing and Coventry, England.

The company is privately funded and according to Else will “absolutely be doing institutional investment within the next year.”