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BUSINESS
Business grows with push for green technology
Carolyn Pinson Nielsen, Bent L. Nielsen, and H.R.H. Crown Prince Frederik discussing joint investment opportunities in green energy between the U.S and Denmark at an event in September 2009 in New York.
Purchase this photoHUNTINGTON -- The way Bent Nielsen sees it, wind is like a gold mine, except rather than the riches being under ground, it's flying above our heads.
The Danish engineer moved to the United States in the 1980s and has been in the business of helping people harness wind power for 30 years. He's helped develop wind generation companies and done turnkey turbine projects throughout the world, and now he's started a company in Huntington that helps climbers who work on wind turbines.
Tower Logistics, located at 109 3rd Ave., makes the Climb Assist, a device that enables a worker who is climbing over 30 feet to climb with greater ease. It reduces the climber's perceived weight by up to 60 percent, allowing the climber to work with a clearer mind and a better thought process.
And the business has been growing at quite a rate since it got started in 2005, due in large part to the boom of the alternative energy market. The company had sales in excess of $2 million in 2008, with expected annual growth of 25 percent in 2009.
The company currently markets primarily to the wind turbine industry, but is poised to penetrate the cell tower industry as well.
So far, Tower Logistics has shipped its product to wind farms throughout the United States and the world.
Huntington Steel owns about 23 percent of Tower Logistics, which has 12 employees and suppliers that include local businesses such as Granger and Tri-State Electric. R & S does machining work for the company, and Huntington Steel does the welding.
Nielsen moved to Huntington with his wife, Carolyn, in 2004. He had been working in the wind industry in California since the 1980s.
They sold their first 12 Climb Assist units in 2006, "and we were ecstatic," Nielsen said. "Now we've sold 1,000."
The Climb Assist is successful simply because it's needed, said Nielsen, partner and CEO of Tower Logistics, who used to be a turbine engineer and climb towers. Back then, they were only 90 feet high, he said. These days, they average 270 feet.
When he was climbing, climbers reached a certain age and their career as a climber was over.
"You either got kicked upstairs or you quit," Carolyn Nielsen said. "And you lose all the experienced climbers that way."
But with the Climb Assist removing 60 percent of G-forces, "I'm 53 and I can work for another 10 years," Bent Nielsen said.
It's not powered electronically, all by a system of counterweights and manpower. The company believes that the climber should be able to control his own movements. Plus an electronic lift is expensive, needs more maintenance, and obviously is harder to use if the power goes out.
It does however have a portable engine that can be used to hoist tools or let climbers who are working at the same time hoist the yoke system to another climber.
Along with those who work on wind turbines, Nielsen hopes it can be used by climbers who work on cell towers, in mines, and on cranes, storage towers and oil towers.
Nielsen's engineering skills have been put into other projects as well. He holds several pending patents, and he's working with a company called Invest in Denmark on a product called Virtual Tech, which allows expert technicians to assist field technicians from a remote location.
Invest in Denmark is an arm of the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Virtual Tech is a system that involves the field technician wearing lightweight video equipment with easy mobility in a location such as a tower, and an engineer on the other side of the world can see what's happening and help the technician with a tough job.
Nielsen's connections through that project helped put him and Carolyn in audience with His Royal Highness Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark in September.
They attended an event titled "A Program for Climate Change -- Challenge or Opportunity for International Business," held in honor of Prince Frederik at the Scandinavian House in New York last month.
The program was held in conjunction with the opening of the 2009 United Nations General Assembly in anticipation of the United Nations Climate Change Conference 2009. The conference will be held in December in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Nielsen hopes to bring his "Greentech" inventions to market in both the United States and Denmark, and he and the Crown Prince discussed the business climates in both the United States and Denmark for investment in green technologies such as wind, solar and biomass.
When it comes to green technology and climate change, Nielsen said his biggest wish is for "everyone to stop pointing fingers at each other," he said. "I would like to see everyone work together with conventional power plants and (alternative power sources) and let's get ourselves out of the Middle East. We're exporting so much taxpayer money, and they're not seeing any returns.
"Let's invest here. It might take 15 or 20 years, but let's get started."
