Future Looking Bright For Envision Solar
This post first appeared on San Diego Loves Green
by Roy L Hales
Anyone who thinks that share price tells all should listen to theStockradio.com’s interview with Envision Solar’s CEO, Desmond Wheatley. (Click here to access it.) During the past two year the company’s share price has dropped from 55 to 18.5 cents. That would normally be a bad sign, only Envision used those two years to develop the Cadillac of solar structures.
The pun, made by Wheatley during the interview, is intentional. Though Envision only announced the first installation last month, they have been working with Cadillac for two years, creating a Solar Tree® array whose design is unique to the car manufacturer.
Envision’s first Solar Grove was erected in Kyocera International’s parking lot, in San Diego, during 2006.
“We used to take weeks constructing static solar structures just like everyone else, now we deploy highly engineered, architecturally accretive sun tracking machines in a matter of a few days,” Wheatley says.
Envision has also re-engineered their product to create what Wheatley called a “solar tree on a truck.” Two years ago, installations took 15-20 weeks. For a car lot, or any other customer who needs their parking lot, that meant 15-20 weeks of lost revenues. Now Envision brings a pre-fabricated Solar Tree® structure to the site. The video below shows the installation at SDG&E’s Innovation Center.
That was over a year ago. They have improved upon the system. It took them seven days to deploy the recent Fremont installation for Cadillac. The record, so far, is a Solar Tree® structure they installed for NREL in Golden Colorado in 4.5 days.
They have also developed Envision’s unique sun tracking technology called EnvisionTrak™ , which allows the Solar Tree® structure to follow the sun as it moves across the sky. That has increased the amount of energy that can be collected by 18% to 25%, compared to a fixed array. Each Solar Tree® array now collects enough sunshine to power approximately six single family homes each day or fully charge six electric vehicles.This led to the Solar Trees®, which now comes with a tracking device that allows the panels to follow the sun as it moves across the sky. This innovation has increased the amount of energy that can be collected by 18% to 25%. Each Solar Tree® now collects enough sunshine to power around six homes.
Though the company’s stock price declined while these improvements were being made, the future looks sunny.
(All images courtesy Envision Solar)
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