HORICON, Wis. — A local engineer is hoping to use his new technology to help farms and families in Wisconsin and across the country.
Carl Fausett calls Horicon, Wis., home. He lives in a former 1913 Lutheran school house, which he converted into a home.
Fausett had a long career in automobiles and racing. He created parts for cars.
Now, in retirement, he’s switched gears and is channeling his energy into creating a new type of wind powered generator. He is the developer of the Airfoil Generator.
“I thought, I am sitting on a set of skills. This actually shows great promise and really could help, and I can’t not contribute,” Fausett said. “I want to do something for my grandkids and if I can get these out there and installed in fields, then I am having an effect.”
Over the past few years, he’s tested and developed the Airfoil Generator. It’s much smaller than traditional wind generators and accelerates the wind before it even runs through the turbine.
“We’re actually accelerating the air before we run it through the turbine to extract the energy,” Fausett said.
After working with cars his entire career, Fausett said he feels passionate about this new path while in retirement.
“Now this time it satisfies my heart,” he said. “We are actually doing something for climate change. We’re actually doing something good that will be lasting, long after I’m gone and that just feels really good.”
Right now, the wind generator is in a fundraising stage in order to build its first working models. Fausett said his hope is to build one close by him in Dodge County.
The goal of the first Airfoil Generator is to bring in tangible data and then deploy the generator with farmers and families in rural areas without disturbing their crops or making excessive noise.
“In this design right here, if an ambient wind comes to the nose of the airfoil, at say 15 miles per hour, it’s accelerated to 32 miles per hour once it hits the rotor,” Fausett said. “We’ve doubled the wind speed at the rotor, which means we’ve increased the amount of energy available in that wind.”
Fausett said to be at this point after years of trial and error is a proud moment.
“It’s exhilarating to think that now we are ready. Let’s get them in the fields and improve on them, and make a difference,” he said.