About American Offshore Energy

 American Offshore Energy is an American company dedicated to the development and implementation of offshore vertical axis wind turbines (VAWTs). These turbines have a broader base and a much lower center of gravity than HAWTs, so they float easily, allowing for inexpensive siting in Class 6 winds.

 VAWTs would have just one moving part, the rotor. American Offshore Energy will use near-frictionless radial air bearings to support the rotor at the perimeter. This also enables direct drive generation at the perimeter, eliminating the entire drive line.  This also makes VAWT's less expensive and faster to build. These advantages result in a 50% cost reduction per megawatt; a shorter delivery time; and a simple mechanical system that is inexpensive to maintain.

American Offshore Energy is ideally positioned to deliver these advantages from its location in Aston, PA, with easy access to facilities on the Delaware River, and the Atlantic Ocean. 

Drew Devitt is an entrepreneur. He founded and is majority owner of New Way Air Bearings, and now American Offshore Energy.
 

Devitt founded New Way Air Bearings in 1994 to commercialize the porous media air bearing technology he began developing in Devitt Machinery (which is his parents business). Since then, New Way has developed a diverse array of products designed specifically to solve the linear and rotary motion requirements of precision engineers.
 

Based in Aston, PA, 15 minutes south of Philadelphia International Airport, New Way was honored with a position on the Inc. 5000 list of the fastest-growing privately-held companies in 2007, 2008, and 2009. In November of 2007, The Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce named New Way recipient of its Technological Excellence of the Year Award for 2008. In both 2008 and 2009, New Way was also named a Deloitte Fast 50 Technology company for the Philadelphia, PA, USA Region. The company is ISO 9001:2008 Certified.
 

Devitt is New Way's majority owner and serves on its board of directors. He holds a Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration.
 

Technological innovation is one of the key factors in the organization's success. Devitt, as CTO, has maintained the company's research efforts, new customer development, and its connections with research and academic institutions, in order to foster the continued development of air bearing technology understanding.
 

Devitt has authored dozens of articles and technical papers and holds multiple patents including an application on air bearing-supported VAWT. He was published in Renewable Energy World NA (February 2010 issue) writing on flywheel energy storage for frequency regulation.  
 

The Mission Statement for New Way Air Bearings is limited, however, to being an air bearing manufacturer.
 

Devitt established American Offshore Energy to advance offshore utility-scale wind energy generation. The technology employs air bearings, which enable the novel design of his VAWT. Devitt's 30 years of experience working with US machine-tool builders, provides extensive expertise in heavy machine-tool erection. His background in bearing technology and fabrication techniques are key to creating the equipment necessary to make the new wind turbine components and the bearing technology that enable them.
 

Devitt has been a sailor since childhood and still races competitively, he studies sail design and has a patent pending on a new sail design. He has logged many offshore miles and is familiar with navigation and extreme ocean weather.