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INTERVIEW
that involves using them as raw
material for creative projects.
What has been your
favorite project?
Jeff: Recently, getting our iPad solar
charger (http://www.voltaicsystems.
com/) out was a lot of fun. There
are a lot of people doing things
around phone charging, but no one
had really done anything close to
the right design, performance, and
price for tablets. On the engineering
side, there were a lot of tradeoffs
about cost, weight, charge times,
and device compatibility we had to
think through. I think we’re happiest
when we can be building products
that no one else is.
Do you have any note-worthy
engineering experiences?
Jeff: The first time that we
connected one of our batteries in
development to a device and the
battery started smoking. I think
we all learned the importance of
over-discharge protection at that
moment. We also got more formal
on the battery testing process to
make sure the things we specified
actually made it into the product.
Phil: When I took on learning how
to build my own bench supply, I
connected my first linear supply
circuit to the mains, and almost
immediately both of the large filter
capacitors popped and started
venting a noxious smelling smoke. It
took three days and several cans of
air freshener for the smell to go away.
It was an important lesson in double
checking electrical connections
and matching component specs
to project demands; a postmortem
examination revealed that I had
wired the transformer backwards!
What are you currently
working on?
Jeff: We’re working on solar LED
lighting. LEDs are getting more
powerful and cheaper. And to
some extent, so are batteries and
solar panels. This means that it
will become economical for a safe,
clean lighting source to replace
unsafe, dirty, and expensive lighting
sources like kerosene across the
globe.
Phil: A big project that we’re
coming close to finishing is our
line of laptop chargers. We’ve been
tweaking designs for optimum
efficiency charging from solar, as
well as making sure the batteries
can supply power for the most
demanding laptops on the market
today. We hope to release our new
high-power systems in the fall. On
the low power side of things we’re
taking on NiMH battery charging,
and are developing a AA battery
charger optimized for charging
from solar.
What direction do you see
your business heading
in the next few years?
Jeff: We think there is a conversion
happening from AC to DC. If you
think about LED lighting as well as
our phones and tablets (becoming
the defacto TV), you can power a lot
of things in a home without AC. From
a solar perspective, this means you
don’t need an inverter. You don’t
need a big lead acid battery. You
need a small to moderate sized
solar panel and a compact lithiumion
or lithium-polymer battery. We
think this will make the economics
of solar much more effective and
practical for low and middle-income
families around the globe.
What challenges do you
foresee in our industry?
Jeff: In consumer electronics, size
and performance are always an
issue. People want things smaller
and cheaper. The issue is that solar
cells really haven’t gotten that much
more efficient. So when people
buy products with a tiny little solar
panel on it, they may think it is
cute but the end result is that it just
doesn’t work that well and they end
up souring on all of solar. I think
properly setting expectations and
educating masses of people who
have been trained on plugging
things into perfectly functioning
wall outlets on how to use solar will
take some time.
I think the other challenge will be
dealing with end-of-life issues. In a
decade or so, there will be a lot of
solar panels and batteries that have
stopped functioning properly. Are
these recycled properly? Can we
recover the value from them. I don’t
think that has been worked out.
Phil: The challenge of educating
people is a major issue. I see the
portable solar market as a path
toward marketing larger utilitybased
approaches to solar energy
production. If many people are
having poor experiences with
portable solar charging, then
that will inform their attitudes
toward proposals for larger scale
installations in their communities.
Sadly, not all of us are convinced
that solar is worth the expense,
otherwise we’d see panels covering
rooftops and southern-facing office
buildings everywhere. Ultimately,
the larger scale utility-focused
installations are where solar’s
greatest potential lies. Making
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