A Dream Powered by Wind

A quarter century ago, David Calley and Andy Kruse joined forces with a vision to deliver electricity to underserved people around the world. With a modified Ford alternator, some borrowed money and a plan, they built a new kind of wind turbine: simple, reliable, easy to install, and small enough to ship to any spot on earth. They called it the Windseeker™. It changed the rules of small-scale renewable energy and launched a company that endures to this day.

Twenty-five years later, Southwest Windpower has shipped more than 180,000 wind turbines to 120 countries and impacted countless people. The Company’s wind turbines can be found swishing in a suburban Texas backyard, powering a mountaintop radio tower or bringing electricity to far away villages. Southwest Windpower helped usher in an era in which wind energy is mainstream; it’s become integrated into cultures on social, economical and political levels. Calley and Kruse’s reverie has created waves of “green” energy virtually anyone can ride.