James Dehlsen

James Dehlsen is an American businessman and inventor who became one of the pioneering figures of the modern wind power industry in the United States. Born in 1937, he founded Zond Systems in 1980, which grew into the first company to commercially supply wind power to a US utility, Southern California Edison, and helped make California the birthplace of the modern wind industry during the 1980s wind boom, when the company purchased large numbers of turbines from the Danish manufacturer Vestas before developing its own designs, including an early variable speed turbine. In 2001 Dehlsen co-founded Clipper Windpower with his son, leading development of the 2.5 megawatt Liberty wind turbine, the largest turbine manufactured in the United States at its 2006 commercial launch. He holds numerous patents related to wind turbine technology.