WePOWER is a Laguna Niguel, California renewable energy company that provides wind, solar and magnetic energy solutions. The company’s specialty is vertical axis wind turbines (VAWT) for use in cities and suburban areas.
WePOWER had been partnering with another California VAWT startup called PacWind and announced last month that it has purchased PacWind’s proprietary technologies.  PacWind’s patent portfolio included U.S. Patent No. 7,109,599 (‘599 patent) and U.S. Patent Application Pub. No. 2008/0273978 (‘978 application), both relating to omni-directional VAWTs.
The ‘599 patent is directed to a wind rotor having a central vertical axis of rotation (13). The rotor assembly includes an upper ring (25) and a lower ring (26), with a plurality of vanes (35) connected to the upper and lower rings and extending axially between the rings. An electric generator (40) is supported by the rotor foundation.
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The ‘978 application is directed to a vertically-oriented wind turbine (20) with a central axis of rotation (21). The turbine assembly has a generator (24) mounted to a base (23). A bearing (25) supports the rotor (26) and mounts two sets of three arms each (28, 29, 30), with one set above the other. Vanes (31, 32, 33) are rigidly attached to the ends of respective arms (28, 29, 30).
The PacWind acquisition boosts WePOWER’s position in the medium wind market, including its trendy and cleverly named sub-specialty of wind-powered billboard advertising, which the company calls “windvertising” (see the “windvertising” piece here, the New York Times article here and the Triple Pundit story here).
WePOWER promotes its Windvertiser program on its web site (see here), and owns U.S. Trademark Application No. 77/707,870 for the WINDVERTISER mark for:
Advertising and advertisment services, namely, promoting and marketing the goods and services of third partis, including select clients, on wind turbines and other renewable energy products
