海角大神

Inspiration came with a gust of wind, surging off the sea and into a cafe near Tunis, where it swept a curtain weighted with a metal rod against the chair of an engineer named Anis Aouini.聽Clunk!

Mr. Aouini鈥檚 mind leapt to weights and surface areas. 鈥淗ow much energy just struck my chair?鈥� he wondered.

Today Aouini and his business partner, Hassine Labaied, are trying to market Aouini鈥檚 latest invention, born that day at the cafe: new wind energy technology they say could revolutionize the industry.

Economists hope such ventures will help undo the legacy of former president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, who was toppled in 2011. His family and cronies had a stranglehold on the economy, leaving little room for young entrepreneurs like Aouini and Mr. Labaied.聽

鈥淭he system under Ben Ali was a closed society, not just in terms of governance and lack of democracy, but also in terms of the economy,鈥� says Antonio Nucifora, lead economist on Tunisia for the World Bank.

Corruption, restrictive laws, and thickets of red tape prevented all but a privileged few from succeeding big.

鈥淪eemingly half of the Tunisian business community can claim a Ben Ali connection through marriage,鈥� wrote Robert F. Godec, then the American ambassador to Tunisia, in a June 2008 diplomatic cable that was published by Wikileaks.

Outsiders who managed to turn a profit could easily find their ventures wrested from them by members of 鈥渢he family.鈥�

A chance to prove himself

Aouini has always聽been an ideas man. In his office he keeps pencil drawings he made as a schoolboy of fighter planes of his own design, immaculately rendered, with components and armaments neatly labeled.

He studied engineering in college and worked in the oil sector. Then came the windy day at the cafe in 2010, and the flash of inspiration. Wind energy has traditionally relied on propellers, but what if one could harness the power of a sail?

Aouini designed a concave wind catcher that swivels about to turn a crankshaft via a multi-directional sprocket, and obtained an international patent from the United Nation鈥檚 World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). Labaied, a childhood friend, raised seed money in Dubai, where he was working in finance.

Last year Labaied returned to Tunis and the two men launched Saphon Energy, named for a Carthaginian deity of the winds.

Each man seems to fit his part: Aouini, with disheveled hair and a desk crowded with gadgetry and model airplanes; Labaied, clean-cut and bespectacled. They opened an office above Labaied鈥檚 parents鈥� house and built a giant fan on the roof to serve as a wind tunnel, used with computer modeling to test their device.

Now, they鈥檙e looking for an investor to buy their technology.

It鈥檚 a tough sell. The wind energy market is eager for new solutions, but also wary of them, says Jonathan Naughton, director of the Wind Energy Research Center at the University of Wyoming.

鈥淗istorically, there have been lots of optimistic claims about new technology that generally haven鈥檛 panned out,鈥� he says.

Investors will be particularly skeptical of Saphon Energy鈥檚 claim that their聽technology鈥檚 degree of efficiency surpasses the Betz limit. Calculated by the German physicist Albert Betz and published in 1919,聽the limit聽describes聽the maximum kinetic energy that can be extracted from wind by turbines as 59.03 percent.

Aouini argues that聽while the Betz limit was developed for propeller聽systems, Saphon聽Energy鈥檚 technology works according to different principles.聽He聽may have a point in theory, says Mr. Naughton,聽but聽the company must make a strong case for it through hard science and, crucially, independent testing.

鈥淭hat鈥檚 the burden on the entrepreneur and patent holder,鈥� Naughton says. 鈥淭o demonstrate not only a great concept, but one that鈥檚 at least as good 鈥� if not better 鈥� than existing technology.鈥�

An economy slow to adapt

Independent testing is too costly for Saphon Energy to undertake alone, say Aouini and Labaied. They hope an investor can help shoulder the burden. That鈥檚 a tall order at the best of times, and even more so today.

Uncertainty over Tunisia鈥檚 future is deterring many investors, says Jacob Kolster, North Africa director for the African Development Bank. So are old laws聽that still remain on the books,聽such as the investment code, previously聽used聽by Ben Ali鈥檚 regime to monopolize the economy.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a huge document that contains endless sections on what鈥檚 not allowed,鈥� Mr. Kolster says.

Saphon Energy is registered in the British Virgin Islands, not Tunisia,聽to escape the Tunisian investment code, says Labaied.

But for Tunisian entrepreneurs to truly聽flourish, the system at home must change, say Kolster and Mr. Nucifora. According to Aouini and Labaied, so too must the attitude of many young Tunisians.

鈥淚t鈥檚 frustrating to see Tunisians who are capable of innovating, but who have a psychological block,鈥� says Labaied.聽He feels that too many have grown used to 鈥渢he idea that we can only import things.鈥�

Aouini cites a dearth of patent applications 鈥� his own a rare exception 鈥� as evidence of Tunisian apathy. According to figures from the World Intellectual Property Organization, Tunisians have filed just 42 applications so far since 2007 through the Patent Cooperation Treaty system, a primary framework for international patents.

That鈥檚 where Aouini and Labaied hope to make a difference. Whether Saphon Energy鈥檚 venture succeeds or fails, the men set an example of innovation and risk-taking.

鈥淵ou find a path,鈥� says Aouini. 鈥淎nd if you don鈥檛 find one, you create one.鈥�

He cites as inspiration the legendary resourcefulness of the Carthaginian general Hannibal on his march over the Alps. The example is, perhaps, doubly apt: Hannibal ultimately failed to conquer Rome, yet is still admired over two millennia later for his daring and tenacity.

鈥淲e are entrepreneurs in innovation,鈥� Labaied says. 鈥淚f this innovation doesn鈥檛 work out, others will.鈥�