In a time when few wind companies get venture capital funding, UpWind Solutions raised a $28.8 million round led by Kleiner Perkins (KPCB).
Based in Oregon, the company doesn’t make wind turbines, it provides operations and maintenance services for wind farms.
Founded in 2007 by former General Electric employee Bo Thisted, UpWind manages hundreds of megawatts of wind farms for utilities in western states.
UpWind maintains and replaces turbines, conducts warranty inspections and other services.
Through a new partnership with Control Consulting Inc., UpWind will be able to offer customers real-time monitoring of wind farms. Its UpWind AnalyticsTM, softward provides early warnings of potential failures that, if they were to go undetected, would cause wind project owners lost revenue through downtime and/or costly repairs.