Lasted edited by Andrew Munsey, updated on June 15, 2016 at 2:05 am.
These are business folks and vendors with whom Robert Pritchett met and talked with at Events:SolWest July 25 and 26, 2008.
The Hydro-Go team didn't have a booth, but did have some vehicles they enticed me to go see. They bought one of the Scan Gauge II units, so they could use it to check how good the engines are on the vehicles they install their hydrogen boosters in. They have some clever electronics that keep the amperage down and only sip power from the battery instead of sucking it in large gulps. More cool tech! They also liked popping off the hydrogen as it was coming out of the boosters (beyond the bubblers).
Janelle from Sunelco waxed poetic at the Friday night dinner for those of us who were participating in the SolWest activities. She said her team spend 12 hours on the road so had plenty of time to come up with their poem. It may show up here sometime soon.
I spend some time discussing the legal climate between Washington, Oregon and California with Ron Burden of Mr Sun Solar. Washington is SO far behind the other Pacific coast states regarding incentives. He thought WA state was doing better. I explained to him why the other electrical outfits basically have literally moved from WA to OR to do business because the legal climate is more conducive to doing alternative energy systems in Oregon.
I met up with John Earle, an early New Energy Congress member who has since re-registered on the PESWiki website.
I reconnected with Paul Cienfuegos, who wants to sell his line of sustainability books through our PESWiki store, if possible. Pending approval from Sterling Allan.
I didn't get to spend much time with Larry Abney, of Abney Solar Electrix this year. He was rather busy with prospects.
The EdenPURE heater via Burns Electric, runs off an infrared quartz tube that acts as a heat exchanger (soft heat) and plugs into a regular wall outlet using only around 12 Watts to do the job.
I spent some time with Jerry Ostermeier listening to him talk about the hydro-electric turbines his company has developed over the years using the PowerPedia:Watermill technology.
I would have loved to have spent more time listening to Curt Garner of Cascade Sun Works, but I also had to touch base with the guys at groSolar!.
Wade Crittenden of Chinook Distributing was in the same booth area as Robin Gudgel of MidNite Solar. Wade has the gift of gab and loves talking about his R&D efforts in Wind Turbine technology efforts. Catch the wind above 30 feet to be in undisturbed air and his little unit, combined with the inverter technology from MidNite Solar will be a sweet complete shipping system in about 3 more months. The turbine rotates on a contact ring to avoid the issues other turbines have had with internal wrapping of electrical wires. Made in America. I also spent time with Robin Gudgel and his wonderful wife as he discussed his "Classic" inverter designs tha tare combo units for wind, solar, hydro, etc. so separate dedicated inverters are no longer needed. And he is selling the units to Outback Power Systems, the company he helped establish before it went "corporate".
Moly and Robert were making everybody hungry with their sun-baked goodies (the lasagna smelled great!) in their Solar Ovens. The units seemed to look better this year for some reason. They had a very busy booth out on the fairgrounds.
I didn't get to stop for long at the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) booth and talk with Sarah Lancaster.
Randy and Melissa Richmond have been to SolWest every year for 10 years. They have an all-electric conversion kit and sell the WinVerter at Right Hand Engineering. We found out whether or not the Scan Gauge II would work after Randy had removed the majority of the on board computing system. The answer was "not so much".
I got a chance to see the off-grid equipment from Southeast Marine Services and speak with Fred King, P.E. for a few minutes before checking out the solar-powered telescopes next to his booth. (There was some sunspot activity earlier in the day.)
Peter M. Byrne and his crew at Setanta Solar have been very, very busy with installing evacuated tube solar hot water and gray water systems from Apricus and Brac all over the Northwest. His business is growing exponentially.
Doug Hamilton and his team from Silent Power dropped by our booth and discussed hydrogen booster systems for a while. They have inverters/converters that compete with MidNite Solar
Michael VanDerWater had a pretty extensive Solar Oregon booth with lots of handouts on the progress we see in Oregon regarding alternative energy systems and solutions. He said there was a movement going forward albeit ever so slowly, to duplicate their efforts in Washington State. Lead on, Oregon!
I don't know how they are doing it, but the prices for biofuel from SunBreak BioFuels is less than the going rate. Jeff Brandt dropped by the booth and asked about how we were doing the There was an error working with the wiki: Code[1]
thing.
Rick Staychock had to have these Kleen Kanteen single-walled 316-stainless steel bottles made in Red China, because nobody stateside would do it. They feel light-wight as aluminum. They will last a lifetime.
I met with these two and later their partner at the Friday Night Dinner with them all dressed in Camo-fatigues. EnvioFuel does veggie-oil motor conversions at around $8K pert vehicle. All metal hoses, no plastic or rubber, for biofuel engine systems.