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Local wind power company supplies global clientele
Lakewood-made turbines support off-grid consumers
Eric Peterson //March 13, 2019//
Local wind power company supplies global clientele
Lakewood-made turbines support off-grid consumers
Eric Peterson //March 13, 2019//
PRIMUS WIND POWER | Product: Energy + Environment | Made in: Lakewood
Aircraft and wind turbines require similar manufacturing skill sets. Both are all about precision and aerodynamics.
It’s unlikely anybody in Colorado knows this any better than Randy Brodsky, president and CEO of both Primus Aerospace and Primus Wind Power. “They’re separate companies,” he says of his two businesses. “We refer to them as affiliates. There’s some crossover with regards to management and manufacturing.”
Brodsky bought Primus Aerospace in 1998, then snapped up the rights to Southwest Wind Power’s AIR line of small wind turbines to launch Primus Wind Power in 2013. He subsequently moved turbine manufacturing from Arizona to Lakewood to capitalize on synergy with his 140-employee aerospace operation.
Primus Wind Power today has a dedicated staff of about 10 employees. The catalog includes a range of turbines and towers for different environments. “We’re on our 11th generation of turbines and we have six different models,” Brodsky says. “It’s a retail product, which was unique for our business, which is B2B on the aerospace side.”
Commercial and industrial customers buy about 70 percent of Primus’ turbines, and 30 percent go to consumers, Brodsky says, “primarily off-grid houses and cabins in the woods,” as well as sailboats. “They really don’t want to run diesel to charge their gadgets,” he says.
With 60 suppliers and 60 distributors around the globe, the company now has about 180,000 turbines in the field worldwide and manufactures upwards of 5,000 units a year. “We have about 75 percent of the North American market, and we have about 20 percent of the European market,” Brodsky says. “It’s what I call a feel-good business. It’s got a very good aura.”
