May 4, 2009

RV EXPERTISE WILL GO TO WORK ON GREEN ENERGY

South Bend Tribune - Business Weekly

By GENE STOWE
Tribune Correspondent

Lucid Energy Technologies expects to begin production within a year on energy-producing turbines that use wind or water, taking advantage of the skilled labor force and manufacturing facilities available in Elkhart County.

President Tim Braun, an Elkhart County native who with Vigor Clean Tech of Ontario acquired Lucid last year, says he wants to help establish more green manufacturing in the area.

“We had a strong vision for utilizing the labor capacity that’s here,” he says. “There’s also a lot of excess manufacturing capacity. The people that were excellent production engineers, the creative minds and hands in the RV industry, have given us excellent services in prototype development.”

The company currently employs six full-time and four part-time workers, mostly RV veterans, and outsources additional work to local shops. It has produced a successful prototype for a turbine that uses water power and expects to roll out the device later this year.

“We’re in a mature prototype development stage moving to a beta installation stage and full production after that,” Braun says.

The company has long worked with water turbines and started working with wind turbines in the last year. Both technologies are aimed at producing power close to where it will be used.

Braun, who will earn an MBA in sustainable business from the Presidio School of Management in San Francisco this year, had been an investment advisor focused on socially and environmentally responsible industries for more than a decade when he decided in 2007 to become more directly involved in such a venture.

“It’s funny how similar it is to my previous work,” he says. “We’re sort of in a perpetual mode of looking for new capital sources.”

The company hopes to attract economic stimulus money, distributed by the federal, state and local governments, to speed development of the new technologies for which it already has an established track record.

“We’re trying to identify ways that Lucid can tap into those resources and accelerate our business growth,” says Gina Leichty, director of communications. “What we’d really like to do is ultimately produce our turbines locally and create green jobs in the community.”

Lucid Energy Technologies is located in Goshen. See the Web page at www.lucidenergy.com.
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