AEST harnessing kinetic energy from roads

Hayward, Calif.-based AEST is seeking $10 million in a Series B round to finance four power-purchase agreements in the U.S. and UK.

The deals, potentially worth $600,000 a year each for the next five years, are based on a proprietary technology AEST developed to capture untapped kinetic energy and sell it for $0.14 per kilowatt hour.

CEO Terry Kenney told the Cleantech Group today that the technology, dubbed Dragon Power Station, is activated when heavy duty vehicles drive over plates embedded into the road. The pressure on the plates initiates a hydraulic pumping system that turns a generator in order to produce electricity. The customer pays AEST for each kilowatt-hour produced, at a predetermined rate that is about 20 percent lower than the commercial cost to purchase electricity.

"Our technology doesnt take up roof space or land space, and it takes the existing way you do business and turns that into electricity," Kenney said. "It's taking your day-to-day operations and turning it into a piggy bank."

AEST has already raised $4.3 million in equity financing from Bob Trimble of Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Trimble Navigation; Fremont, Calif.-based Miller Cubed; and 41 individual investors. The company installed a demonstration project with a 2.5 kW generator in 2005 at the Stevedoring Services of America (SSA) Terminal at the Port of Oakland, Calif., to demonstrate the technology didn't disrupt business.

Now, AEST is seeking the Series B financing to expand that system and start other projects. A full-scale system costs AEST $2.5 million to deploy. The system would consist of about 20 road plates to produce 10,000 to 12,000 kWh per day. After the initial cost to install, AEST would perform minimal maintenance and receive payment for all electricity produced.

"For coal-burning electricity you must continually have the expense of coal, but once our unit is in the ground and operating, the only thing we need is trucks," Kenney said. "There's a small amount of maintenance, and the system is running 98 percent of the time. It's much cheaper than any traditional power source."

Kenney said AEST has signed agreements with SSA for Dragon Power Stations in the ports of Oakland and Long Beach, Calif.; with Sainsbury's for a truck depot in Pinehurst, England; with the U.S. government's Gerneral Services Administration for a border crossing between San Diego and Mexico; and with the Oakland Maritime Support Services at the Oakland port. 

The technology can also incorporate a surveillance system for system undercarriages. Typical customers are ports, border crossings and truck depot locations, where trucks are driving at less than 30 miles per hour. The company said it needs between 2,000 and 3,000 trucks to drive over the plates each day in order to optimize the system.

The payback of less than five years would be accelerated to about two and a half if AEST can qualify for renewable energy tax credits. Interim Senior Vice President Bailey Partridge said company officials are meeting with the California Energy Commission this week.

"Renewable energy can't stand on its own. Without government welfare, it wouldn't be a very attractive business," Partridge said. "Our system stands on its own without tax credits, but that's not to say we're not going to politic for those credits."

Kenney said the company has about 94 percent energy conversion efficiency, with the option to store excess power in lithium ion batteries on in the hydraulic system.The company is primarily focused on the U.S. market but is looking into China, Korea, and Australia.

AEST has 2 employees and outsources the manufacturing of its systems.

AEST is one of 35 potential new global investment opportunities that the Cleantech Group added to its dealflow database this week—available exclusively to members of the Cleantech Network. Members can click here to search the dealflow database.

Interested in investing in cleantech companies? Here are two other companies from the Cleantech Group's dealflow database also looking for funding:

• Portugal-based Oon Solutions is seeking $1.5 million for its home recycling solution for used vegetable oil. The high design appliance converts used vegetable oil into smart little candles. The company has applied for an international patent.
• Palo Alto, Calif.-based Driptech Technologies is seeking $300,000 to scale to commercial manufacturing of an affordable drip irrigation device for farmers in developing countries. The company previously raised $55,000 in seed funding for a pilot study in India of 15 vegetable farmers.

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