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Our advantages

  • 1
    Experience

    ADI Thermal retains a lean talented technical team with over 50 years (combined) engineering experience in the fields of aerodynamics, automotive, acoustics, computing, and chemistry . The team members are 15 year veterans of design, build and test of thermal storage systems and heat engines. The technical team is balanced by 14 years of executive experience in business strategy and program management with a track record of significant organization contribution

  • 2
    Technical Innovation

    In the area of new product development, there is no other quality as critical as innovation. ADI Thermal has developed an affordable small Stirling Engine Genset that boasts an efficiency that exceeds that of large scale turbines, and yet it is quiet enough to install within the community. This enabling technology will bring the advent of Distributed Power Generation as a new thriving industry by providing rapidly deployable power generation capacity to support economic and population growth. Over the years, the people at ADI have demonstrated time and again this ability to innovate and improve over current mainstream technologies; a quality that will continue to lead to future profitable products.

  • 3
    Market

    Far too often, great technologies fail because they faced a mature market full of advanced competitors. ADI Thermal is entering a market that is still young and that cries out for what ADI has to offer. Centralized power generation, while having a scale based efficiency that is impressive, requires a massive delivery system (the grid) which is inefficient, expensive to install and maintain, and vulnerable to earthquake and wind damage. Burgeoning populations, urban sprawl, and the growth of industry create new power demand that is often hindered by the centralized power industries inability to rapidly adapt. Distributed power generation could easily expand to fill this huge market niche, IF it possessed a product that met all the requirements. ADI Thermals Dual Shell Stirling Engine Genset is that product. It is rapidly deployable equipment that produces affordable power, quietly where and when it is needed. It is an enabling technology in a young, growing market with product and operating cost advantages over its competition.

Core Competencies

A Few Words About Us

ADI Thermal Power Corporation is a small high tech startup company incorporated (2000) in Washington State by Wayne Bliesner, Gerald Fargo, and George Weinmann. ADI Thermal was formed as a spin off company, to focus development efforts on one of three promising new technologies originating from parent company Alternative Design Inc (ADI): the Dual Shell Stirling Engine Genset. ADIs completion of the initial working engine prototype drew the interest of a prominent group of East Coast angel investors. With funding from this group, ADI Thermal expanded operations and began advanced development of the complete system. A high temperature, high effiency burner was developed and integrated. Generator integration was improved. An ultra low friction coating technology was incorporated into the drive system. The crank mechanism morphed into a near vibration free rhombic drive. The Genset evolved into an autonomous system (fuel in, electricity out) by a process of successive design-build-test cycles. Funding for these efforts (having begun with Friends and Family and Angel Investors) grew to include institutional investment from companies like Alliant Energy and EPRI to government research contracts from the CEC. By 2008-9, the system had advanced to the most expensive stage in its development cycle, and in happened to coincide with a period of extreme investor conservatism brought on by the US financial crisis. Funding had been brought low and it became apparent that without some stroke of luck or a radical new strategy, the final stages of product testing could not be completed.

A new application was needed to help pull the company back into the market and infuse the enterprise with new investment interest. Solar technology, and in particular Solar Thermal was starting to receive significant investor attention worldwide as one of the most promising avenues for renewable energy. Solar had always been on Wayne Bliesners agenda (someday), and he knew exactly what the industry needed - a means to deliver electricity uninterrupted - 24 hours a day. Unfunded, Wayne invented the calcium hydride thermal reactor and with the help of long time friend and associate Gerald Fargo, founded ADI Solar (in 2009) to pursue this new technology as a separate - but related - venture. If this new technology could be used to create a solar application for the engine, then it could breath new life into the engine development project.

Using the reactor technology, ADI Solar teamed with Australian financial partner EMC to build a thermal storage device capable of an order of magnitude improvement over current state of the art storage devices. This invention, along with the Side Focusing Heliostat (Fargo) and low temperature hydrogen storage, integrates perfectly with the ADI Stirling Engine Genset to form a system that can produce continuous electrical power 24 hours a day. ADI Solar is currently preparing for full scale development with durability trials leading to final design while pursuing business objectives leading to full scale commercialization. ADI Thermals Engine/Genset is baseline to ADI Solars Solar Thermal Power Generation system, and is currently experiencing renewed investor interest from the ADI Solar customers. Through ingenuity and perseverance, together these technologies will change the world and usher in a new era of renewable energy and distributed power.

Our Team

  • Wayne Bliesner

    President/Founder

    Wayne Bliesner is the CEO and Founder of ADI Thermal. He holds a BSCE and MSCE in Aeronautical Engineering from the University of Washington and has been researching and developing alternative energy power generation technologies for over fifteen years. Mr. Bliesner is an expert scientist and physicist, with an advanced understanding of chemical reactions, metallurgy, and liquid chemistry. As a distinguished scientist and engineer at Boeing for over 20 years, he has a detailed understanding and experience in building large-scale applications of complex programs. As the Inventor of the team, Wayne has been the main creative force for most of the new technology emerging from the enterprise. As the Leader, Wayne has been the planner and stategist of the team, and his persistence has driven the company to survive and eventually succeed.

  • Gerald Fargo

    VP Engineering

    Gerald Fargo is a 25 year veteran Executive/Engineer/Project Manager/Product Manager, including 12 years in alternative energy research and development. His technical background includes fluid dynamics, structural mechanics, automotive acoustics, solar optics, computational methods, CAD software development, CNC machining, correlation of test to theory, overall product design, and test to reliability. Gerald Fargo holds BS degrees in Aero/Astro Engineering and in Finance from the University of Illinois. As the Implementer of the team, Gerald is the creator/developer/refiner of ideas, adding practicality to Wayne’s creative talent and order to the chaos of creation.

  • Leigh Felton

    VP Marketing

    Leigh Felton is a highly skilled strategic business executive and program manager, with a track record of significant organization contribution. With over 14 years as an executive at Microsoft Corporation, Ms. Felton is a Principal Partner at ADI, and holds an MBA in Business Communications in Management from City University in Seattle, WA. As the Communicator and Strategist of the team, Leigh leads the company to new business opportunities in Marketing, Financing, and Team building.