Our Story

Cadens started in this venture with an exhaustive market search to purchase a small 25-35 kW unit for the Rome Mill. Acquiring a used turbine runner proved unsuccessful. Turbine suppliers seemed reluctant to engage and sell a low head, micro hydro unit, but eventually we received quotes of $90,000-$120,000 for a well-known 18” Francis design (wicket gates, runner w/shaft) – no generator, no controls, no installation. A startup quoted $150,000 F.O.B. San Francisco, for an unproven design, now defunct – no installation. None of the available options were economically feasible and demonstrated that the turbine runner was the single most expensive component but the other custom components were not economical either. It also became clear that proven hydropower theory and modern computational tools should be used to design the system for highest efficiency. CFD and FEA are critical in designing high-efficiency components to be robust for system longevity.

The Cadens Team

Randal Mueller

Randal (RJ) Mueller is an entrepreneur and a small business owner. His strong interest in sustainability led him to start  an alternative lawn care company serving customers in Madison since 1991. He has brought together a strong team of partners to work with Cadens; focused on the surging, small hydro energy-water nexus.

Dan Gieschen

Dan Gieschen is an angel investor and highly accomplished, award winning software & technology developer and an expert in lean start-up and organizational management. In addition to over 15 years experience creating, managing, and supervising the development and maintenance of high-end technology applications and solutions for Fortune 500 companies, Dan was a founding member of a small 5 person entertainment software company that rapidly grew to support over 1 million daily players, 100+ employees, and went on to become one of the top grossing iPad and Facebook applications multiple years in a row. The company achieved successful, high valuation exit within 2 years.