Wind United (formerly United Wind)

About Wind United (formerly United Wind)

United Wind, founded in 2013 by CEO Russell Tencer, emerged from the strategic combination of Talco Electronics and Wind Analytics to address the distributed wind energy market. Tencer, an executive with a background in financial services, asset management, and entrepreneurship, previously founded and scaled Wind Analytics, a provider of data and analytics for the renewable energy industry, which he sold in 2012. His experience in both finance and renewable energy analytics shaped United Wind's approach.

The company's core offering was the WindLease program, a model designed to eliminate the high upfront capital investment for property owners interested in wind energy. This 20-year, fixed-rate lease enabled customers, primarily in rural and agricultural sectors, to install and use a distributed-scale wind turbine (at or below 100 kW capacity) with no initial out-of-pocket costs. United Wind managed the entire process, from site assessment using proprietary software and satellite imagery, to permitting, installation, and ongoing maintenance. This turn-key solution was structured to provide customers with immediate savings on their electricity bills, typically around 10%, and locked in their energy rates with a modest fixed annual escalation, protecting them from the volatility of traditional utility price hikes.

Revenue was generated through a dual-stream model consisting of long-term lease payments and service fees for performance monitoring and technical support. The company's growth was fueled by significant financing, including an $8M Series B round in 2016 led by Statoil Energy Ventures and Forum Equity Partners, and a substantial $200 million project equity commitment from Forum to support the WindLease initiative. Strategic partnerships were fundamental, including an exclusive financing agreement with turbine manufacturer Bergey WindPower to offer their BWC Excel 10 turbines to residential and farm customers. After several years of operation and raising over $250 million in financing, United Wind was acquired by Eocycle, a global renewable energy technology company, on December 1, 2019.