By Kristine Lesch and Josh Goldade

The energy industry, as a whole, is facing the huge problem of energy storage. Currently the most common way is to store energy in batteries, but this is usually the first point of failure in a system. By reducing the amount of battery storage required, devices will be more reliable.

We, Josh Goldade and Kristine Lesch, began working together in the Fall of 2008 as senior design partners at the University of North Dakota. The project consists of a wind turbine and a solar panel mounted to a central structure that encloses electronic equipment and two gel cell lead acid batteries. This device has the advantage of collecting renewable energy from two sources – wind and solar – which translates into more consistent energy collection over the course of a day. Because of this the number of batteries and the weight of the system is signifi cantly reduced.

The company, SunAir Power, was created prior to entering the BOSS Business Plan Competition. Th e name “SunAir Power” was derived from the energy sources used – solar and wind. Before this competition, we never had any experience working on a business plan, so we were both excited and nervous for this new opportunity. We spent the latter part of Fall 2008 in a crash course for business plan writing. Thankfully, we found people who had experience in entrepreneurship who were great resources and provided much needed support in forming our business-oriented mindset and creating a marketable product. We were comfortable presenting the power generator from a technical, design perspective but had to accept constructive criticism on how to present a business model. After numerous practice sessions in front of entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and advisors, we felt ready for the BOSS competition.

SunAir Power was originally aiming to develop a renewable energy system that could be mounted on an interstate advertisement to provide power for overnight lighting. This system would be stationary but would still need to be lightweight enough to safely mount on top of the billboard structure.

After winning the BOSS Business Plan Competition, we dove into market research for the advertising industry. Unfortunately we determined that the market would not be profitable because of the small profit percentage between unlit and lit billboards in rural areas. Thus began the restructuring of our entire business model. After contact with numerous people in the community with experience in this industry, the decision was made to focus more on a portable generator system for use in remote locations. For a stable source of income, we are pursuing a contract through the Department of Defense that will give us the opportunity to sell many units at a specifi ed agreement. This generator would allow the military to have their surveillance and communications equipment out in the field for longer periods of time without frequent refueling as they currently do with fossil fuel generators. We will also market the product through internet sales to individual consumers.

SunAir Power will be developed and maintained in Grand Forks, ND in order to support rural economic development. It will also provide greater visibility to the renewable energy industry in this area. Overall, we have had a great experience developing a small business in North Dakota. The welcoming atmosphere and openness found here is fantastic and has eased our transition into entrepreneurship.