About Us:

Foundation Windpower, LLC — Menlo Park, California — builds wind turbine generators on-site at businesses facing large energy demand and high energy costs. We finance, build, and maintain our turbines at no cost to our customers, and help our customers control costs by selling the electricity generated by the turbines directly to them at a price below utility rates. Our customers include mines, quarries, distribution centers, agricultural processing facilities, water treatment facilities, and other large energy users looking to save money through renewable generation.

Foundation Windpower offers Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) at either a fixed price or a discount indexed to remain a fixed percentage below utility rates. This allows our customers to choose the solution that best meets their operational and financial planning needs.

Wind power offers a renewable resource that dramatically reduces hydrocarbon emissions while decreasing America’s dependence on foreign oil. Hosting an on-site wind turbine is a visible symbol of environmental stewardship and a demonstration of a commitment to American energy independence.

Net Energy Metering laws make our projects feasible even if a customer’s operation does not run 24 hours a day. When turbine generation exceeds customer demand, or if energy is generated when a customer facility is not running, the excess energy runs back into the grid, and the customer receives a credit from their utility. Conversely, when the wind is idle or customer demand exceeds turbine production, the customer buys grid power as usual, or a combination of grid and turbine power. Our customers’ operations face no power disruption from our wind turbines; the wind turbines and grid operate seamlessly in parallel.

The Team

Matthew Wilson, CEO

Matt created Foundation Windpower to establish a systematic approach to bringing large-scale wind power solutions to rural industrial facilities in California and medium-sized utility-scale wind projects throughout the United States. Matt previously served at Siemens Building Technologies, Energy Group as Director of Business Development. Prior to that he was Director of Business Development for Trapeze Networks, responsible for all OEM and strategic alliances. At AT&T Communications, Matt held the post of Director, Sales and Marketing. He holds a B.A. from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

John Pimentel, President

John formerly was President of White Hat Renewables, focused on renewable energy generation and clean technologies. He previously served as turnaround CEO and Board Member at Vertex Energy/World Waste Technologies, a solid-waste-to paper-pulp and renewable-energy project developer. As co-founder and board member of Pacific Ethanol, he helped create strategy and develop financing for four plants in the Western U.S. John's career also includes serving as a consultant for Bain & Company and as Deputy Secretary of Transportation for the State of California, managing Caltrans, CHP/State Police, the Department of Motor Vehicles and the Transportation Commission. He holds an MBA from Harvard University and a B.A. from U.C. Berkeley.

Robert Lewis, SVP Sales and Marketing

Bob co-founded Foundation Windpower after working as Senior Sales Executive for Siemens Building Technologies, developing commercial-scale solar business plans. He has held the post of Director, Commercial Sales at Solar Depot, Inc. and was co-founder and Executive Vice President of Sales at Modern Media Ventures, a multimedia educational company. Bob holds a B.S. from UC Berkeley.

Steven Sherr, SVP Business Affairs & General Counsel

Steve provides business, legal and policy expertise and leadership in support of Foundation Windpower's distributed wind energy generation strategies. He also plays a key role in effectively implementing wind energy solutions for each of our customers. Steve came to Foundation Windpower from the San Francisco law firm of Howard Rice. As a Partner there, he provided counsel to a wide range of clients, including start-ups, Fortune 500 companies, public agencies and industry leaders in energy, cleantech, semiconductors, software, real estate and financial services. Steve's career includes service as a federal judicial clerk for the U.S. District Court Judge Fern M. Smith, and as a legislative aide to U.S. Representative Howard Berman. He holds a J.D. from Yale Law School and a B.A. from U.C. Berkeley.

Kevin Hauck, SVP Business Development

Before joining Foundation, Kevin was a Partner at White Hat Renewables, focusing on financing, business development and fundraising. Previously, he served as Senior Engineer at Broadcom, an enterprise-network switching company, and a chip designer at Juniper Networks, an Internet core router design and development. Kevin holds B.S and M.S degrees in Electrical Engineering, and an M.S. in Management Science, all from Stanford University.

Steven Grant, Director of Construction and Project Management

Since 2010, Steve has served as Director of Construction and project management for Foundation Windpower. In this capacity, he oversees all aspects of turbine construction and operations. Steve previously served as Plant Construction Project Manager at Granite Construction where his responsibilities included budgeting, worker safety, bid management and contract awarding. Steve also has extensive experience in management of labor including subcontractors and technical consultants in the design, permitting, construction and commissioning of plants. Prior to Granite, he held the positions of Plant Design and Construction Manager and Assistant Plant Operations Manager at Teichert Aggregates. Steve holds a B.S. in Civil Engineering from California State University, Sacramento.