The potential for profit is blowing in the wind, and Green Wave Energy Corp. plans to catch it.

Among its secret weapons: an 11-foot-tall, blazingly white, nearly indestructible prototype generator that produces as much as 11 kilowatts of electricity using gusts of wind.

The fiberglass contraption could make homespun, do-it-yourself wind power a reality, Chief Executive Mark Holmes said. A model version recently stood amid yachts in a Newport Beach shipyard before being disassembled for updates, but Holmes envisions it moving soon into the backyards and rooftops of homes and businesses.

"It's gee-whiz stuff," he said. "It gets really Space Age."

Green Wave has big dreams for its generators, known as microturbines, and for a product that churns out energy using ocean waves. There are also ambitious plans for a park filled with larger turbines.

The wind-energy industry is growing, in part with help from federal stimulus money. For the first nine months of the year, more than 5,800 megawatts of wind projects were added to the nation's energy supply, up nearly 40% from the same period last year, according to the American Wind Energy Assn.

But for fledgling energy companies such as Green Wave, staying aloft can be a major challenge.

"It's been hard getting this off the ground," Holmes said.

Unlike most windmills' propeller-shaped turbines, the Green Wave products operate on a vertical axis, merry-go-round style.

More than 20 U.S. companies build or are developing vertical-axis turbines. Around 200 urban or rooftop units were sold in 2008, double the 2007 number.

Sales of small wind turbines soared last year to $77 million and 10,500 units capable of generating 17.3 megawatts of electricity, marking a 78% increase in capacity sold from 2007, according to the American Wind Energy Assn.

Holmes has invested $100,000 of his own money since Green Wave launched in October 2008 with a vast underestimation of the resources, time and effort needed to operate.

Development costs have been about $1.7 million, about four times higher than the team had expected.

The crew quickly learned the value of resourcefulness.

Friends, family and other investors, who have pitched in $110,000, have given Green Wave access to $1.5 million in facilities, supplies, vehicles, equipment and services, Holmes said.