MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--Buying a solar panel should be like purchasing a refrigerator or hot tub, according to ReadySolar.
It should be a home product that comes ready to install in one box with simplified instructions so nearly anyone can install it. Hence the company's so-called "Solar in a Box" product it's pitching here at Launch: Silicon Valley.
(Credit:
Ready)
ReadySolar makes a modular, prefabricated solar-panel box. The aim is to bring down the cost of solar installation and components, according to Meredith McClintock, the company's founder and president. The company does that by building a proprietary chassis in which any kind of solar panel can go.
The Solar in a Box system will be sold directly to builders and can be installed by crane in several hours with less than a dozen parts. The company says the advantage will be that builders won't need a subcontractor specifically to install solar panels.
The typical solar system can cost between $9 and $11 per watt of power, or $30,000 and $60,000 for a new home. ReadySolar says it can bring the cost down to between $4.50 and $5.50 per watt.
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--When starting a business, it's important to create a product that solves a problem. A small start-up is tackling a big dilemma: 2 billion people in the world don't have access to electricity.
Here at Launch: Silicon Valley at the Microsoft campus, 30 start-ups are pitching social-media products or software as a service. D.light Design is thinking a bit more globally.
(Credit:
Erica Ogg/CNET News.com)
D.light Design was born out of a Stanford University class project, and it currently has five employees. Chief Executive Sam Goldman spent four years in the Peace Corps in West Africa, where he says he lived with a family that used kerosene lamps to light its home after sundown. Goldman discovered firsthand that not only are the lamps dangerous--one of the children was permanently disfigured in a kerosene fire--they're an investment, requiring up to 30 percent of the family's income.
The result of Goldman's experience is the Forever-Bright, a prototype light-emitting diode (LED)-based device that he showed off to investors and media at SVASE.
The product is a small, white box that doubles as a light and power source. D.light says the final product will last five years and is chargeable off any power source, including solar power, 110- or 220-volt grids, and diesel generators. There will be power jacks in the back for powering other devices, such as cell phones. The Forever-Bright will launch in parts of India and Pakistan next month, Goldman said.
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