Early work focused on doing solar PV-installations in West Michigan, nurturing a secondary battery Company start-up, and a University Renewable Energy Product Development Center.
When Dr. Wolter retired in 2010 from full time academic efforts he wanted to turn the company's focus exclusively to new, solar-product development and "not so much" on PV-projects, so the original partners separated to continue their unique interests and Dr. Wolter assumed the sole ownership of Energy Partners LLC and opened his laboratory as an incubator client of MAREC in Muskegon, MI.
Energy Partners now has several informal partnerships with very good development companies - whose foci are on:
Secondary (rechargeable) battery development has consumed billions of development dollars in the past 25 years and most important to our interests, certain cell chemistries (NiMH and Li-based) for example, have achieved phenomenal success with literally billions of cells being sold each year at affordable prices.
Our roots in the rechargeable battery industry now go back over 25 years and during this time we have been able to evolve advanced battery control systems and gain high degrees of confidence and control over our battery cell suppliers. Solar24HAM will give you the latest, proven, energy storage and control options - no fly-by-night suppliers and no experimental cell chemistries.
Our initial offerings are limited to three choices (QRP, HF, and Shack-Level) of power levels in the energy storage and control modules for the balance of 2014. As a start-up we will need to finance an inventory of Solar24 modules before we become a significant supplier of PV panels but we are prepared to steer you to Solar Panel retailer/installer partners who we have solicited and qualified as "partners" - in time and with success we will begin to provide options for economical, direct-sale of photovoltaics to Hams. We are not prepared to buy full-container lots of PV panels either from domestic or international suppliers - but one thing is certain, with PV growing fast - the price keeps going down and the performance keeps going up and we plan on being a very good source of installed systems or "kits" for your convenience and electrical independence.
After looking at numerous options, we invented a new concept for which we filed a US Patent in 2011: DISTRIBUTED ENERGY STORAGE AND POWER QUALITY CONTROL IN PHOTOVOLTAIC SYSTEMS.
Admittedly, our focus on larger systems was a result of thinking of larger solar farms - but after more than a decade of hauling solar panels, batteries, inverters, charge controllers, and point-to-point wiring to my 40 meter CW station for Field Day - I realized how much more convenient it would be to take my one, integrated PV + battery + control Solar24 invention to field day and run a red & black pair of wires into the tent. So FD2014 was my inaugural launch of Solar24HAM.
So, fellow Amateurs, if you are on this site - you may have seen our September 2014 QST ad introducing Solar24HAM™ and we hope you will enjoy the benefits of our new product.
Whether Solar24HAM is your choice for Emergency Communications or casual portable operation, we are confident that our efforts to make an affordable and quality solar power supply can give you years of trouble-free off grid electricity - 24 hours a day.
Jim W9BWC
Planned Innovation is a market-based method of increasing your rate of successful new product development, launch-planning, and adoption. I was Dr. Bacon’s Ph.D. student in the early 1980’s and owe to the methods he teaches the clarity of vision and probability of success which I expect as the results of our 7 year Clean-Tech Energy Products development odyssey at Energy Partners, LLC.
In those 7 years, we have not invented better PV-panels, new energy storage methods, smart-inverters, or software/firmware control systems but we have done extensive “Opportunity Analysis” and “Product Requirements Research” as may be defined in Dr. Bacon’s book and enlisted world-class expertise in configuring novel configurations of product-solutions which have enormous potential for solving clean energy problems. This work has defined our intellectual property (both in proprietary methods, and in seven published patents which we believe define the future of clean energy systems.
I personally have 28 years’ experience in installing PV + battery systems and working in a consulting capacity with leading industry partners. I also led the process of creating our University’s Renewable Energy Research Center in 1999-2002. This effort was achieved with the help of Siemens who supplied all of the power transformers, switchgear, controls, and distribution panels. This MAREC Center (Michigan Alternative and Renewable Energy Center) opened in 2002 as Michigan’s first LEED-Gold building and all systems (30KWP BIPV, 30MW Capstone Microturbine, 1.8KW wind turbine, 250KW Fuel Cell Energy molten carbonate fuel cell, 80KWH/75KVA NiMH energy storage) were all AC-integrated to the buildings 480 VAC 3-phase power supply using Siemens Controls and expertise. It was likely the first building to demonstrate what Professor Werner Hartkopf (Carnage Mellon) described as “the building as the power plant” and indeed we generally generated 150% of our day’s electricity and heating needs (so we exported 50% to the grid many days).
I had wanted to do a “common DC-buss” but there weren’t any suppliers, no NEC-Codes, and no existing DC power devices to allow a fully DC direct integration which inspired me to begin thinking about how we would have created this microgrid using direct current integration.
I learned that I could not compete in the $multi-Billion investments made in either PV, Energy Storage, and software defined control but I could (did) develop software-defined applications which both solve persistent energy integration problems AND immediately adapt to the changing characteristics of Solar Energy component technology in most cases with just in-circuit software “flash-upgrades”.
I prefer to say our products “learn” new operations rather than saying we are “agnostic” with respect to choices of PV, mounting, inverters, energy storage etc. because at the time of installation there are clearly “best choices” to be made based upon system’s requirements (in all three domains; Customer’s needs, vendor and product-solutions, and code requirements) which is not being “agnostic” at all.
As you peruse what follows it is my hope that you see in our IP, the depth of understanding and scope of treatment that we discovered since 1999 which was needed in our “products requirements” research phase to gain substantial leverage in developing best-in-class solutions.
Dr. James F. Wolter, Managing Partner
Energy Partners, LLC
We will develop novel electric-power availability and power-quality controlling systems using the either direct conversion of sun-light into electricity (aka. Photovoltaics), - or- alternative, clean, generation technologies and create Dispatchable Power 24 hours each day through the use of energy storage and advanced software defined controls. Our trademark: Solar24® stands for reliable electric power 24-hours per day using a “12 hour” sunshine.