1
00:00:05,125 --> 00:00:14,448
Good morning grid connections listeners and welcome back to season 6 of grid connections
the podcast where we explore all things transportation Clean energy and our power grid

2
00:00:14,448 --> 00:00:23,781
connecting all these systems together This season we are actually upping the ante and
we'll be trying our best to bring you not one But two new episodes per week covering more

3
00:00:23,781 --> 00:00:27,692
topics and highlighting how all the technologies we discuss here work together

4
00:00:27,747 --> 00:00:34,472
We're excited to share some of the great guests and panels we already have lined up for
this season, but please let us know who you want to hear from.

5
00:00:34,512 --> 00:00:45,801
Or even if you just have an idea for an episode, please reach out to us either on social
channels, our website, gridconnections.fm or email us at guests at gridconnections.fm.

6
00:00:45,821 --> 00:00:55,256
In today's episode, we're joined by Patrick Sherwin, CEO and founder of GoSun, a company
bringing a wide array of consumer solar products to market from ultra-efficient solar

7
00:00:55,256 --> 00:01:00,128
ovens to an innovative new EV solar charger that lets you drive on sunshine.

8
00:01:00,209 --> 00:01:08,874
Patrick takes us on a fascinating journey, revealing how GoSun started with a wildly
successful Kickstarter for a portable solar oven and grew into a powerhouse for delivering

9
00:01:08,874 --> 00:01:10,855
consumer solar products.

10
00:01:10,855 --> 00:01:15,647
If you've ever wondered how flexible solar panels can handle the abuse of everyday life or

11
00:01:15,647 --> 00:01:17,529
How you can unlock true energy independence.

12
00:01:17,529 --> 00:01:19,580
This conversation is for you.

13
00:01:19,580 --> 00:01:29,839
We dive into the mechanics of EV charging powered by their compact solar panels, why solar
manufacturing is booming in China and the future of making solar power more accessible for

14
00:01:29,839 --> 00:01:30,750
everyone.

15
00:01:30,750 --> 00:01:39,276
Whether you're an EV enthusiast ready to ditch the gas pump or a weekend camper looking
for portable energy solutions, or just curious about sustainable living, you won't want to

16
00:01:39,276 --> 00:01:44,711
miss Patrick's insights on how easy and affordable it can be to embrace the solar
revolution.

17
00:01:44,798 --> 00:01:51,824
If you enjoy this episode, share it with at least one friend or fellow clean tech fan
who'd appreciate learning more about solar powered solutions.

18
00:01:51,824 --> 00:01:56,428
And while you're at it, help us spread the word by leaving a positive review on our
podcast page.

19
00:01:56,428 --> 00:02:01,853
Your feedback helps us reach even more listeners eager to plug into the latest in
renewable energy.

20
00:02:01,853 --> 00:02:03,699
With that, enjoy.

21
00:02:08,870 --> 00:02:10,690
Patrick, thank you for coming on today.

22
00:02:10,690 --> 00:02:16,544
And for anyone that's not familiar, let's kind of get into this and kind of learn more
about your background and how this all began.

23
00:02:16,544 --> 00:02:18,075
Wow, what a pleasure, Chase.

24
00:02:18,075 --> 00:02:19,397
Thanks for the intro.

25
00:02:19,397 --> 00:02:22,399
Yeah, we're definitely in similar streams here.

26
00:02:22,399 --> 00:02:29,405
I have been working with solar for about 25 years, trying to figure out how to get it to
power our lives and enter the electric vehicle.

27
00:02:29,405 --> 00:02:33,649
What a fun opportunity to combine the two.

28
00:02:34,670 --> 00:02:43,644
You know, my focus has been in kind of independence and resilience, you know, taking

29
00:02:43,644 --> 00:02:53,742
I was on the solar coaster for many, years doing commercial installs, you know, doing
design work, running up and down rooftops, both residential and commercial.

30
00:02:53,943 --> 00:03:07,274
And, you know, getting into something smaller scale with GoSun, launched it on Kickstarter
about a decade ago to develop like consumer-based solar powered appliances for recreation

31
00:03:07,274 --> 00:03:09,015
and resilience.

32
00:03:09,016 --> 00:03:11,842
And that has entered a whole new...

33
00:03:11,842 --> 00:03:15,715
career and kind of my path as both entrepreneur and inventor.

34
00:03:15,715 --> 00:03:29,476
And it's just been a ton of fun coming up with solutions to kind of everyday life as well
as some of these bigger challenges that face our world and face EV ownership.

35
00:03:29,476 --> 00:03:30,877
And so I'm stoked to be here.

36
00:03:30,877 --> 00:03:32,328
Thanks so much for having me.

37
00:03:32,577 --> 00:03:34,517
Yeah, no, I think it's great.

38
00:03:34,517 --> 00:03:41,417
I mean, right even before we started recording, Patrick, we were kind of talking about how
we both had been involved with electric vehicles and commercial solar.

39
00:03:41,417 --> 00:03:49,837
And it's just wild to see how, as I kind of refer to it, it used to be kind of like the
homebrew thing or something you would see that someone had in their garage somewhere.

40
00:03:49,837 --> 00:03:54,797
And it was such a foreign concept when an electric vehicle or even having solar on your
roof is.

41
00:03:54,797 --> 00:04:01,177
it's like most people probably know solar as far not that long ago as being solar powered
calculator.

42
00:04:01,357 --> 00:04:03,979
Or what was used for satellites or something?

43
00:04:03,979 --> 00:04:16,668
Otherwise it seemed like a foreign too expensive concept and I've always been fascinated
with just And I mean to be honest with that's almost kind of the nexus of this podcast was

44
00:04:16,668 --> 00:04:27,195
like the connection between Solar and renewable energy in general, but especially like
solar and electric vehicles and the role the grid can play and one of the things I've

45
00:04:27,195 --> 00:04:29,748
always just thought is so interesting and I

46
00:04:29,748 --> 00:04:36,992
I try not to get really into politics on this side, but it's just like, don't, I've never
quite understood why people wouldn't be.

47
00:04:36,992 --> 00:04:45,397
I understand if you don't want to have it or whatever, but I think I've never fully
understood why people are against it in a lot of ways where it just enables you to kind of

48
00:04:45,397 --> 00:04:47,097
have that independence.

49
00:04:47,898 --> 00:04:50,089
I can kind of get the HOA aesthetic argument.

50
00:04:50,089 --> 00:04:52,100
That's, that's its own podcast.

51
00:04:52,100 --> 00:04:59,134
We won't talk about that today, but I mean, especially if you have like the space to do it
or the roof space to do it, it just enables so many cool things to really.

52
00:04:59,134 --> 00:05:03,055
allow for resiliency and energy independence.

53
00:05:03,055 --> 00:05:09,587
And I guess my background's blurred right now, but we're actually having a pretty decent
snowstorm move in.

54
00:05:09,888 --> 00:05:12,708
so like having that kind of energy backup and stuff is nice.

55
00:05:12,708 --> 00:05:15,509
And I know a lot of people think, well, it's snowing.

56
00:05:16,430 --> 00:05:18,307
Doesn't that mean your solar panels don't work?

57
00:05:18,307 --> 00:05:22,251
I think that's what's kind of so crazy and wild about them is actually, no, it still will.

58
00:05:22,251 --> 00:05:24,372
It won't probably produce as much.

59
00:05:24,829 --> 00:05:33,354
But then the instant if the Sun comes out and it's cold out then you do see the efficiency
go way up So it's like I don't know obviously you and I could kind of nerd out on this and

60
00:05:33,354 --> 00:05:46,274
go way down these kind of Rabbit holes, but it's just really cool to see what you're doing
and across so many things and we'll obviously get into the EV product right now, but He

61
00:05:46,274 --> 00:05:53,384
has to take a step back to mention a Kickstarter that used to be I feel like such the
craze and everyone is doing those now You don't see those

62
00:05:53,404 --> 00:05:55,516
as many as much anymore.

63
00:05:55,516 --> 00:06:01,902
And I think it was such a great thing for business like yours to actually be a way to kind
of launch and start building new products.

64
00:06:01,902 --> 00:06:09,577
But yeah, let's let's kind of just start there and just kind of learn about what led to
that and how that kind of kicked off and how it's kind of developed now into a lot of

65
00:06:09,577 --> 00:06:10,629
other products.

66
00:06:12,369 --> 00:06:23,134
Yeah, I think we're looking at a new era where, you know, if you go back to like our
parents' and they were hot-rodding, right?

67
00:06:23,134 --> 00:06:31,958
They were taking stock vehicles and making them much higher performing and doing creative
things in their garages.

68
00:06:31,958 --> 00:06:39,302
I know my father was a muscle man, muscle head, muscle car driver, and always tweaking and
tuning up his vets.

69
00:06:39,746 --> 00:06:50,866
That same thing's kind of happening in our generation, but in more of this, what I would
consider this renewable age, renewable energy, I've been like, people that are innovative,

70
00:06:50,866 --> 00:06:58,606
kind of artistic, nerdy, they're tinkering in their garages on electric cars, on solar
systems, battery systems.

71
00:06:58,986 --> 00:07:02,766
And we're kind of quietly ushering in a new era.

72
00:07:02,766 --> 00:07:05,986
Maybe it's not as vain or in front of everyone.

73
00:07:05,986 --> 00:07:08,704
It's not as cool as the hot rod era.

74
00:07:08,704 --> 00:07:10,616
But it kind of ties in what you were sharing.

75
00:07:10,616 --> 00:07:14,219
Like it's surprising to me that more people aren't doing it.

76
00:07:14,359 --> 00:07:16,391
I've always, I've always been a tinkerer.

77
00:07:16,391 --> 00:07:19,174
I've always wanted to come up with solutions.

78
00:07:19,174 --> 00:07:26,930
You know, I've always seen kind of the shortcomings of the fossil fuel dominated paradigm
that we're in.

79
00:07:27,171 --> 00:07:28,542
The shortcomings of pollution.

80
00:07:28,542 --> 00:07:33,887
You know, when I was a kid, I watched somebody dump a bunch of oil into our neighborhood
creek.

81
00:07:33,887 --> 00:07:34,658
had the creek.

82
00:07:34,658 --> 00:07:45,398
you know, thriving with fish and amphibians and that oil spill, you know, one single car
change of oil, like about five liters, destroyed everything in the creek for the whole

83
00:07:45,398 --> 00:07:46,118
summer.

84
00:07:46,118 --> 00:07:49,878
And that just kind of turned me into more of a problem solver.

85
00:07:49,878 --> 00:07:59,998
You don't have to call it an environmentalist, but it just a charge to kind of get away
from the mess of utilizing this dark fuel.

86
00:07:59,998 --> 00:08:00,300
it's like,

87
00:08:00,300 --> 00:08:02,321
We don't really have to make fire.

88
00:08:02,321 --> 00:08:04,562
know, we can drive silently.

89
00:08:04,562 --> 00:08:07,213
We can drive on sunshine, on electric power.

90
00:08:07,213 --> 00:08:11,005
And that's kind of been the thrust for a lot of my career.

91
00:08:11,005 --> 00:08:20,839
The first thing that I launched on Kickstarter was a solar powered oven that makes a meal
in 20 minutes with nothing but sunlight.

92
00:08:20,979 --> 00:08:28,762
And that was based on an evacuated tube, solar thermal, like a water heating device that
was developed in the 1980s.

93
00:08:28,802 --> 00:08:31,643
And I just repurposed it for cooking.

94
00:08:31,684 --> 00:08:34,065
And I'd done a lot with other solar ovens.

95
00:08:34,065 --> 00:08:35,856
They were super slow and bulky.

96
00:08:35,856 --> 00:08:45,952
And all of a sudden here's one that really works and works even on these days, like you're
talking about, even when it's like overcast or partly cloudy, it's not going to work at

97
00:08:45,952 --> 00:08:46,322
night.

98
00:08:46,322 --> 00:08:50,645
It's not going to work when it's buried by three feet of snow, but it'll work in the
freezing cold winter.

99
00:08:50,645 --> 00:08:53,116
loves those bluebirds sunny days.

100
00:08:53,276 --> 00:08:56,810
And we kind of rocked the solar cooking industry.

101
00:08:56,810 --> 00:09:01,021
which is not saying much because it's the tiniest industry in the world.

102
00:09:01,050 --> 00:09:03,711
You cannot find a smaller industry.

103
00:09:03,711 --> 00:09:13,591
Yeah, and I for those listening, I was actually I'm kind of sharing the screen right now,
but I was able to pull up one of the items exactly that the solar oven.

104
00:09:13,711 --> 00:09:19,131
And it is such an interesting thing because obviously this is a very modern design of it.

105
00:09:19,131 --> 00:09:20,951
And it's pretty cool how this works.

106
00:09:20,951 --> 00:09:30,271
But like the fundamentals of this is so well because it's been around for so long, like a
lot of Native American and other kind of people used to use essentially solar heat and

107
00:09:30,271 --> 00:09:33,558
other kind of reflective ways to cook and do stuff like that.

108
00:09:34,058 --> 00:09:42,959
And this design that you guys came up with I'm it looks like you have quite a few so I'm
not sure which is probably the Most popular these days are the primary one, but it is just

109
00:09:42,959 --> 00:09:49,734
kind of a cool option to have for cooking and just it's nice that it's also pretty Looks
pretty portable.

110
00:09:49,734 --> 00:09:51,284
So for like camping and those kinds of things.

111
00:09:51,284 --> 00:09:53,345
That's a great option alternative

112
00:09:55,008 --> 00:09:56,158
Yeah, thanks.

113
00:09:56,759 --> 00:10:00,521
And that vacuum insulation really is a game changer.

114
00:10:00,762 --> 00:10:10,367
I guess a lot of the dominant culture thinks that solar doesn't work, that solar that was
installed in the 1970s just sunburned our parents.

115
00:10:10,367 --> 00:10:20,073
And then it got a little bit cheaper in the 80s and 90s and 2000s, but it was still out of
reach and too expensive.

116
00:10:20,073 --> 00:10:21,568
That has changed.

117
00:10:21,568 --> 00:10:23,420
dramatically in the last decade.

118
00:10:23,420 --> 00:10:27,964
So I encourage listeners to take another look at the cost of solar.

119
00:10:27,964 --> 00:10:36,652
And that's obviously a big part of my career or my interest is to mainstream solar and
make it as accessible as possible.

120
00:10:36,652 --> 00:10:45,680
And these ovens are a fantastic way to do that, a way to prove how powerful and capable
the sun is at powering our daily lives.

121
00:10:47,658 --> 00:10:57,422
So we've sold a ton of these solar ovens, but again, we may have taken over 30%, 40%, 50 %
market share of solar ovens globally, but that's not...

122
00:10:57,743 --> 00:11:02,804
You may not have industry tycoons on your show every day, but you're looking at one here.

123
00:11:03,845 --> 00:11:11,669
But the solar oven industry is $3 million, million, not billion, annually across the
entire globe.

124
00:11:11,669 --> 00:11:13,769
So we had to pivot and do more.

125
00:11:15,330 --> 00:11:18,070
a tinker, a problem solver, an inventor.

126
00:11:18,670 --> 00:11:20,270
There's, you know, the sky's the limit.

127
00:11:20,270 --> 00:11:27,190
So we got into like solar powered refrigeration, water purification and sanitation.

128
00:11:27,710 --> 00:11:31,549
We've just done a ton of different appliances where we see opportunities.

129
00:11:31,549 --> 00:11:40,390
And we've been very nimble and sort of very quick and effective to take an idea and move
it into production.

130
00:11:40,390 --> 00:11:45,090
And we often lean on crowdfunding even to this day where

131
00:11:45,090 --> 00:11:53,750
We'll take an idea, we'll kind of share it with our audience on the internet, on social
medias, and we'll see the response.

132
00:11:53,750 --> 00:11:55,470
Are people interested in this?

133
00:11:55,470 --> 00:11:58,050
Is this something that could go somewhere?

134
00:11:58,050 --> 00:12:01,870
Do they think it's worth $500, $300, $2,000?

135
00:12:02,110 --> 00:12:12,790
And with their vote, then we decide to what extent are we going to be investing in the
engineering production design, tooling.

136
00:12:12,802 --> 00:12:15,822
testing, refinement of that particular product solution.

137
00:12:15,822 --> 00:12:19,062
We've done that about 20 times in the last decade.

138
00:12:19,062 --> 00:12:28,954
It's been a really great, thrilling ride to kind of have a short feedback loop between us
and our customer base so they can kind of develop our products with us.

139
00:12:29,435 --> 00:12:31,246
Yeah, I think it's really cool.

140
00:12:31,306 --> 00:12:43,546
Like I said, I came across and we'll get to this, the solar photovoltaic side, but that I
think is one of the things that aren't fully appreciated that solar can be used in many

141
00:12:43,546 --> 00:12:44,817
different ways.

142
00:12:45,378 --> 00:12:48,170
You can use it as an indirect or direct light source.

143
00:12:48,170 --> 00:12:52,083
You can use it obviously for the way you do where there's really not even a photovoltaic.

144
00:12:52,083 --> 00:12:57,107
It's really just refocusing the energy itself into cooking something.

145
00:12:57,107 --> 00:12:59,278
And then obviously I think probably the more

146
00:13:00,353 --> 00:13:08,606
And what probably most people think about when they think solar is kind of solar
photovoltaic And I I guess once again this goes to me just being a nerd about this space.

147
00:13:08,606 --> 00:13:20,401
I just think it's so wildly Fantastic and wild that this essentially something that's
millions of miles away And it's only like a fraction of it is hitting the earth can be

148
00:13:20,401 --> 00:13:29,034
used not only in so many ways But essentially like every form of fuel or power type is
either solar or indoor more or less indirect solar

149
00:13:29,532 --> 00:13:34,997
through a bunch of different processes and So I think it's really great just to kind of
have these things.

150
00:13:34,997 --> 00:13:43,243
I think there has been a little bit There's the consumer side where it's like, okay the
photo will takes on my house Maybe that's too expensive but especially kind of like in the

151
00:13:43,243 --> 00:13:52,110
backpacking or people who like to go hiking there's become a lot more things that like you
guys offer but things that kind of Start seeing like okay that you can use solar in your

152
00:13:52,110 --> 00:13:58,469
day-to-day life Sure, maybe it's not gonna power your entire house whether that be for
financial reasons or

153
00:13:58,469 --> 00:14:00,823
just maybe your house is shaded or something.

154
00:14:00,823 --> 00:14:10,868
But it is really cool to see a lot of these things that this starts to unlock and really
does provide to people in different ways that I don't think many people fully appreciate

155
00:14:10,868 --> 00:14:12,009
until recently.

156
00:14:13,408 --> 00:14:13,818
Yeah.

157
00:14:13,818 --> 00:14:14,779
Yeah.

158
00:14:14,779 --> 00:14:21,614
I remember about three decades ago when I was really starting to get serious in my
tinkering and approach to the world.

159
00:14:21,614 --> 00:14:27,728
My older sister who works for General Electric, said, she said, electricity is not going
to go anywhere, Patrick.

160
00:14:27,728 --> 00:14:32,622
you don't, you know, you're not going to reinvent something that's better than that
anytime soon.

161
00:14:32,622 --> 00:14:37,426
So you might as well try to stay in that lane and look at us now three decades later.

162
00:14:37,426 --> 00:14:40,886
And like, that's just like more true than ever.

163
00:14:40,886 --> 00:14:51,939
I mean, everyone's trying to figure out electric flight, you know, and just what we can do
with electrons and of course zeros and ones, but what we can do is phenomenal.

164
00:14:51,939 --> 00:14:54,970
And it's so much easier than a liquid fuel.

165
00:14:54,970 --> 00:15:00,412
You know, it's so much better than liquid fuel that comes from far away.

166
00:15:00,412 --> 00:15:02,942
You know, you can make it right there in your backyard.

167
00:15:02,942 --> 00:15:09,182
know, modern solar panels are almost all now over 20 % efficient, which is

168
00:15:09,182 --> 00:15:15,068
it's mind blowing, you know, and you really don't need that much of it to power the bulk
of our modern life.

169
00:15:15,068 --> 00:15:23,476
And then with the cost of energy storage continually dropping, it's really that, you know,
again, the opportunities are phenomenal.

170
00:15:23,476 --> 00:15:33,925
And it's, kind of the powers that be that are the only thing really in the way, know, lot
of it's improper leadership and, and bias and, you know, people kind of holding on to the

171
00:15:33,925 --> 00:15:34,730
past.

172
00:15:34,730 --> 00:15:41,813
holding on to the way that they know how to entrench and control and maintain the money
flow in their pockets.

173
00:15:41,813 --> 00:15:51,907
And so it's kind of a shame that more people don't see it as electric vehicles and solar
as the path for the future and for independence and autonomy and, you know, to be more

174
00:15:51,907 --> 00:15:53,398
secure and more resilient.

175
00:15:53,398 --> 00:15:57,379
You know, we don't have to go into someone else's desert and deal with refinement.

176
00:15:57,379 --> 00:15:59,440
That's what always kind of makes me laugh.

177
00:15:59,440 --> 00:16:01,881
You know, they're not going to take away my trucks.

178
00:16:01,881 --> 00:16:03,622
You know, I'm never going electric.

179
00:16:03,622 --> 00:16:04,412
It's like,

180
00:16:04,534 --> 00:16:05,294
Hold on, buddy.

181
00:16:05,294 --> 00:16:12,196
Let me just ask you, do you own an oil well or a refinery or a pipeline or freighters?

182
00:16:12,196 --> 00:16:18,718
Where are you getting your freedom and your independence from the corner gas station?

183
00:16:19,618 --> 00:16:20,969
You're super dependent.

184
00:16:20,969 --> 00:16:24,279
You're more dependent than somebody driving on sunshine.

185
00:16:24,534 --> 00:16:25,790
I don't quite get it.

186
00:16:25,790 --> 00:16:28,641
It's so culturally nuanced, right?

187
00:16:28,641 --> 00:16:33,182
That the solar guys have always been the weenies that don't know what they're doing.

188
00:16:33,340 --> 00:16:35,591
And again, that's changing.

189
00:16:37,152 --> 00:16:38,303
It changes every day.

190
00:16:38,303 --> 00:16:43,196
push my gas pedal after a stoplight in my electric car.

191
00:16:43,196 --> 00:16:46,898
It just blow everybody's doors off.

192
00:16:46,898 --> 00:16:58,194
And it's slowly changing, but it is kind of sad and surprising to me that more people
don't see this as a path for opportunity and freedom and job creation and economic growth

193
00:16:58,194 --> 00:17:02,442
and all those things that are critical to our future.

194
00:17:02,442 --> 00:17:11,789
And rather, you know, we're giving a lot of that away to China who does see this
opportunity and does have the predicament of not as much natural resources.

195
00:17:11,789 --> 00:17:23,338
So they are thrusting their entire industrial machine into solar and wind and energy
storage because they kind of, they have to a bit more than we do.

196
00:17:23,950 --> 00:17:34,584
For sure, and I think that is kind of when the I guess caveats, some would say with solar
is just like so much now is produced, unfortunately, in China and stuff.

197
00:17:34,584 --> 00:17:42,310
And we used to have a fairly decent solar manufacturing base here, but partially due to
costs and partially due to incentives.

198
00:17:42,310 --> 00:17:47,000
And it's one of those things that I would love to see when you talk about domestic
manufacturing.

199
00:17:47,000 --> 00:17:53,050
think obviously China has a place to play in it globally, but it is one of the things I'd
love to see is just more

200
00:17:53,050 --> 00:17:57,690
of that domestically made and I think maybe some of that has to do with that story.

201
00:17:57,730 --> 00:17:59,550
But overall, you're totally right.

202
00:18:00,090 --> 00:18:11,770
I'll be the first to admit, gas is an incredibly dense liquid fuel source, but what's
really interesting is how do you put that energy to work?

203
00:18:11,910 --> 00:18:21,890
And of course, a lot of it is given off in either light or heat energy, and then you only
have X amount released after that that can be put to work, yada, yada, yada, yada.

204
00:18:23,118 --> 00:18:28,401
That's what's so fascinating too, like the battery component to this is like that kind of
has been the missing piece.

205
00:18:28,542 --> 00:18:38,638
And while we've had battery technology, there's been a pretty healthy century of science
and engineering that's gone into making, combustion engines and using that fuel source as

206
00:18:38,638 --> 00:18:39,789
effectively as possible.

207
00:18:39,789 --> 00:18:41,950
mean, trillions of dollars have gone into that.

208
00:18:42,191 --> 00:18:51,322
And so it's really cool to see how much progress has already been made really in, even in
the last decade and just shows how much opportunity and kind of hope there is to further.

209
00:18:51,322 --> 00:18:54,062
increase the energy density of it.

210
00:18:54,402 --> 00:19:04,302
And once again, you just don't need as much energy in a battery source because you're able
to use that energy so much more efficiently because it's not being, I mean, technically a

211
00:19:04,302 --> 00:19:15,322
little bit like going to heat, it's like on a 1 % versus 30 % basis and those kinds of
things here and there that really helps drive that direct relation to what you're putting

212
00:19:15,322 --> 00:19:17,142
in and getting out of it.

213
00:19:17,142 --> 00:19:21,617
So obviously I'm talking to the choir here, probably between our listeners and yourself,
Patrick.

214
00:19:22,089 --> 00:19:25,743
as far as how that all works and what the potential is there for.

215
00:19:25,743 --> 00:19:27,355
yeah, I guess I am curious.

216
00:19:27,355 --> 00:19:37,195
know with your company, you guys are primarily based here and then is a lot of the
manufacturing overseas or is it kind of a mix of both?

217
00:19:38,274 --> 00:19:46,279
It's a little mix, but by and large, the evacuated tube from our original product launch
on the solar ovens was manufactured in China.

218
00:19:46,279 --> 00:19:55,644
It was originally manufactured in the States, Australia, Germany, and then China has
really kind of dominated that in the 1990s, 2000s.

219
00:19:55,684 --> 00:20:00,546
And literally couldn't find any manufacturers outside of China when we first started.

220
00:20:01,607 --> 00:20:06,170
then when it comes to a lot of the other elements that we integrate into our tech,

221
00:20:06,700 --> 00:20:14,778
foldable tags, lithium ion, printed circuit boards, just plastics and silicone.

222
00:20:14,778 --> 00:20:27,761
You name the part, the Chinese supply chain is so robust that I've done a lot of exercises
to consider domestic manufacturing and they almost always end with 3X the price and the

223
00:20:27,761 --> 00:20:28,171
time.

224
00:20:28,171 --> 00:20:30,673
Timelines are way longer in the States.

225
00:20:30,944 --> 00:20:32,154
I do hope that that changes.

226
00:20:32,154 --> 00:20:37,896
don't see that changing anytime soon despite all of the efforts and the blowhard around
tariffs.

227
00:20:38,216 --> 00:20:42,437
know, China is an absolute juggernaut in the world supply chain.

228
00:20:42,437 --> 00:20:51,450
And I don't really see currently that I have any viable options for a lot of the stuff
that I manufacture.

229
00:20:51,450 --> 00:20:54,270
So we'll kind of come up with the prototype.

230
00:20:54,270 --> 00:20:59,042
We'll, you know, we'll domestically source a number of things to get everything working
and aligning.

231
00:20:59,042 --> 00:21:00,726
And then we'll go to China.

232
00:21:00,726 --> 00:21:12,635
And we own a facility in Ningbo near Shanghai where we can kind of control things related
to intellectual property or quality control and assurance.

233
00:21:12,776 --> 00:21:20,702
So we've had a really great relationship that's over a decade long now that's really paid
off.

234
00:21:20,702 --> 00:21:22,554
And the tariffs and all that are really going to hurt.

235
00:21:22,554 --> 00:21:25,857
They're going to hurt our business and it's going to hurt the American consumer.

236
00:21:25,857 --> 00:21:28,479
don't disagree.

237
00:21:28,479 --> 00:21:30,430
You got to give your competition some

238
00:21:30,586 --> 00:21:41,555
some challenge, you know, but it's a new era, an interesting era, and it's definitely an
added risk or threat to many, many businesses.

239
00:21:41,816 --> 00:21:50,202
And I just, again, I just, it's almost laughable to think that we're going to be
reshoring, you know, American jobs on so many things.

240
00:21:50,723 --> 00:21:53,095
know, Americans don't want those kinds of jobs.

241
00:21:53,095 --> 00:21:59,109
And we're not, you know, we're so far past building the bulk of

242
00:21:59,752 --> 00:22:01,724
of our consumer goods.

243
00:22:02,586 --> 00:22:04,769
That ship has sailed.

244
00:22:06,678 --> 00:22:10,108
Yeah, it's an interesting kind of dilemma because I do agree with you.

245
00:22:10,108 --> 00:22:16,741
I mean, I've done my own sourcing for stuff and it is just one of those things where it's
like, yeah, I would love to hire it out or do things like that.

246
00:22:16,741 --> 00:22:20,552
But I've been in that same boat where it's like the costs are so much more.

247
00:22:20,552 --> 00:22:23,792
And sometimes you have quality issues and the timeline.

248
00:22:24,593 --> 00:22:34,295
And to be honest with you, it's like, the two big things, especially like solar
manufacturing and like battery production, we're starting to see maybe the latter.

249
00:22:34,295 --> 00:22:38,715
do a little bit here, but it's still just like peanuts.

250
00:22:38,775 --> 00:22:43,755
I mean, it's just like nothing compared to like the the manufacturing base that China
right has.

251
00:22:43,755 --> 00:22:44,795
And I agree with that.

252
00:22:44,795 --> 00:22:45,835
I'd love to see that change.

253
00:22:45,835 --> 00:22:51,995
It's not going to happen overnight because I do think in the end, it actually kind of does
help the consumer globally.

254
00:22:51,995 --> 00:22:54,875
Just having the different options.

255
00:22:54,955 --> 00:22:59,235
But it's one of those things that is still pretty far behind.

256
00:22:59,275 --> 00:23:04,174
And I mean, and it's been interesting to me, too, because I've even worked with a

257
00:23:04,522 --> 00:23:07,189
Couple of companies around like doing EV.

258
00:23:09,366 --> 00:23:17,798
Essentially, speaking of kind of like the traditional muscle cars and kind of tricking
those out, obviously we've kind of had the change from mechanical engineering to like more

259
00:23:17,798 --> 00:23:19,089
electrical engineering.

260
00:23:19,089 --> 00:23:23,590
And now you do have like a lot of traditional classic cars that are being converted to
electric.

261
00:23:23,590 --> 00:23:33,312
And some of them are essentially getting around some of the traditional battery tariffs by
essentially just ordering cells and then, they put it together to make the battery, but

262
00:23:33,312 --> 00:23:39,594
like the actual, like domestically, but it's like the main actual products and the hard
costs in some ways are still

263
00:23:39,991 --> 00:23:47,951
It's just one of those things that I hope to see change, but I agree with you That's like
there's a there's a large headwind and there's some some of its reality some of that is

264
00:23:47,951 --> 00:23:58,831
legitimate concern around even environmental concerns around some of the manufacturing
other stuff like that, but With that Unfortunate reality, but I agree with that.

265
00:23:58,831 --> 00:24:03,771
I think I'm in the same place like we'd love to see it change And the fact is just even
through my own experience.

266
00:24:03,771 --> 00:24:08,252
I'm not expecting that doesn't matter who's in to see that

267
00:24:08,252 --> 00:24:22,210
Happen as one soon as I'd like whether that be emotionally or realistically so pivoting a
bit though, so obviously you start with the solar heater then you start kind of expanding

268
00:24:22,210 --> 00:24:29,544
into some of these other products and then this is what I came across your company with
first is Let's see.

269
00:24:29,544 --> 00:24:37,608
I'll share the screen real quick the And I've actually now seen quite a few ads for this

270
00:24:38,208 --> 00:24:44,129
the EV solar charger So it's essentially for those listening.

271
00:24:44,129 --> 00:24:55,872
I kind of looks like it if you're driving down the road it almost looked like it's a model
3 or model Y with a normal Thule box or kind of something that people put it's a thin one,

272
00:24:55,872 --> 00:25:06,294
but it looks like you'd put skis or something in well What you do is you unzip it open it
up and then flips out about let's see seven or I guess about eight or nine

273
00:25:06,294 --> 00:25:11,414
solar panels to cover the car to then you can use that to charge the car during the day.

274
00:25:11,674 --> 00:25:19,874
Now, it's obviously not going to be the same as like having a level two charger at home,
but it really does start to unlock some really cool things, especially if you go camping

275
00:25:19,874 --> 00:25:24,714
or like if you park and live on the street, you don't have really reliable place to
charge.

276
00:25:24,954 --> 00:25:30,834
As long as you can park an area that's halfway well lit during the day, it has a lot of
cool benefits.

277
00:25:30,834 --> 00:25:35,309
But Patrick, why don't I'll let you talk about it and kind of the.

278
00:25:36,189 --> 00:25:40,886
what kind of caused it to happen and what made you kind of start this whole project.

279
00:25:40,886 --> 00:25:50,872
Cause I'm really curious like between what led to its creation and then like the actual
engineering and some of the things you've come across along the way and just the whole

280
00:25:50,872 --> 00:25:51,803
process.

281
00:25:52,386 --> 00:25:53,526
Awesome.

282
00:25:53,606 --> 00:25:57,206
Yeah, great intro to the Gosun EV solar charger.

283
00:25:57,286 --> 00:26:00,666
It's been an odyssey to drive on sunshine.

284
00:26:00,946 --> 00:26:05,766
Just probably the most efficient form of transport that we could come outside of a
bicycle.

285
00:26:06,246 --> 00:26:21,504
But I started a company down in Asheville, North Carolina about 20 years ago to take it on
a bike shop and convert most of our bikes into neighborhood electric vehicles and then

286
00:26:21,504 --> 00:26:24,735
solarized charging stations.

287
00:26:24,735 --> 00:26:26,876
And we were a little ahead of the curve.

288
00:26:27,737 --> 00:26:31,136
And stationary solar charging has become very popular.

289
00:26:31,136 --> 00:26:34,179
It's kind car ports covered in solar.

290
00:26:34,179 --> 00:26:38,101
And it's a phenomenal combination of technologies there.

291
00:26:39,562 --> 00:26:45,224
And then with Gosun, we focused a lot more on these smaller consumer products for many
years.

292
00:26:45,804 --> 00:26:50,890
We're still in consumer directed consumer space, basically wanting to

293
00:26:50,890 --> 00:26:55,571
sell products that can ship to your door using the internet.

294
00:26:55,611 --> 00:27:13,226
And we started to explore the idea of what would it take to solar charge your car using
available flexible solar technology that's nearly as long lasting and durable as the

295
00:27:13,226 --> 00:27:20,470
traditional framed photovoltaics, and also now on a cost parity of traditional solar.

296
00:27:20,470 --> 00:27:28,715
but obviously much lighter and safer and easier to dispatch in different mechanisms,
different ways.

297
00:27:28,715 --> 00:27:31,437
we looked at all kinds of different ways to dispatch it.

298
00:27:31,437 --> 00:27:38,321
We looked at sliding drawers and various accordion style folding origamis.

299
00:27:38,321 --> 00:27:45,685
You can keep scrolling down the page and you'll see a few more applications of the product
on different vehicles and whatnot.

300
00:27:46,646 --> 00:27:59,373
Basically, we realized we can get 1,100 watts into this little four by four foot, you
know, by five inch tall rooftop carrying case.

301
00:27:59,874 --> 00:28:05,997
And everything, all of the technology needed to charge your car is up in that case as
well.

302
00:28:06,017 --> 00:28:15,402
So you just literally, as the picture is shown on the screen, you just literally open up
the case, dispatch the solar cells.

303
00:28:15,476 --> 00:28:21,388
across the body of the vehicle and pull your EVSE cable out and plug it in.

304
00:28:21,389 --> 00:28:33,674
And as your car is sitting in the sun all day while you're at work or wherever you are
camping or whatever, you are charging on sunshine via level one, you know, just 110 volt.

305
00:28:34,455 --> 00:28:41,538
You know, we would love to be able to go directly to the car's battery, but that's going
to be years before we have good relations with

306
00:28:41,538 --> 00:28:43,718
EV manufacturers in order to do that.

307
00:28:43,718 --> 00:28:50,338
It would certainly be more efficient because solar is DC and the car battery is obviously
DC.

308
00:28:50,938 --> 00:28:53,598
Instead, we run the solar energy.

309
00:28:53,598 --> 00:28:55,778
Each panel is connected in parallel.

310
00:28:55,778 --> 00:28:59,198
So if one of them is shaded, it's no big deal.

311
00:28:59,198 --> 00:29:07,718
if the angles are different, they all contribute to a central 1,500 watt lithium ion,
lithium iron phosphate battery.

312
00:29:08,138 --> 00:29:09,346
That battery

313
00:29:09,346 --> 00:29:18,826
is then integrated with a inverter that has a series of smarts that can kind of act, the
battery can act like a pass through.

314
00:29:18,826 --> 00:29:23,806
So the energy is just getting directly inverted to be dispatched to the car.

315
00:29:23,806 --> 00:29:26,586
So in many situations, that'll be the case.

316
00:29:26,586 --> 00:29:33,686
Like when you have good full sun, you'll be making 1100 Watts and you'll be sending that
straight into the car.

317
00:29:33,886 --> 00:29:37,598
And then, you know, there's a 200 watt stationary panel.

318
00:29:37,598 --> 00:29:41,272
on the top that's always charging that onboard battery.

319
00:29:41,272 --> 00:29:54,776
That onboard battery is we're calling kind of like a buffer battery that it essentially
kind of absorbs this varying power source to then give your car a more consistent source

320
00:29:54,776 --> 00:30:00,301
in dispatch at a consistent rate to the car.

321
00:30:01,056 --> 00:30:08,068
most electric vehicles don't want to be charged anything more than about six or seven amps
at level 110 volt.

322
00:30:08,088 --> 00:30:11,329
So we have to make sure we're dispatching at least that.

323
00:30:12,769 --> 00:30:19,991
And so in summary, you can get upwards, you know, in the best case scenario, you can get
30 miles of range in a day.

324
00:30:20,372 --> 00:30:23,953
On average, you'll probably be getting 17 miles.

325
00:30:23,953 --> 00:30:29,164
So, you know, somewhere between, you know, on a,

326
00:30:29,164 --> 00:30:34,197
gray day, know, 10 miles on a sunny day, 20 miles.

327
00:30:34,217 --> 00:30:41,062
And it turns out that the average electric vehicle owner drives about 17 miles a day.

328
00:30:41,122 --> 00:30:51,989
So, you know, we know that we're not going to be making that every single day, but we
think we're easily able to meet 50 % of that, you know, on an annual basis in many, many

329
00:30:51,989 --> 00:30:53,750
places across the country.

330
00:30:54,551 --> 00:30:59,174
And in some places, some situations can be a hundred percent of your driving needs.

331
00:30:59,677 --> 00:31:05,419
Well, and there's two really interesting things that come about with this is one.

332
00:31:05,419 --> 00:31:06,080
Yeah, you're right.

333
00:31:06,080 --> 00:31:10,652
Like is it obviously the same as going to like a DC fast charger?

334
00:31:10,652 --> 00:31:13,713
I think that's something we talk a lot about on this channel.

335
00:31:13,713 --> 00:31:14,333
No.

336
00:31:14,333 --> 00:31:16,174
Is that what most people need today?

337
00:31:16,174 --> 00:31:17,534
Actually not.

338
00:31:18,195 --> 00:31:22,537
And the second thing that I think is actually really cool about this is that it's cool.

339
00:31:22,537 --> 00:31:23,367
Yeah, literally.

340
00:31:23,367 --> 00:31:28,819
And that the fact that because you're covering, at least in this case of like the Model 3
and others that

341
00:31:28,819 --> 00:31:36,722
And a lot of EVs now do have glass roofs, are, they definitely make the car feel more
open, kind of give you more space.

342
00:31:36,722 --> 00:31:40,323
The downside is you do kind of get sometimes that greenhouse effect.

343
00:31:40,323 --> 00:31:47,866
Whereas now with this, you're actually keeping the car itself cooler so you don't have to
worry about like AC or other things kind of shutting on, especially not or turning on,

344
00:31:47,866 --> 00:31:49,727
especially in a hot day.

345
00:31:49,847 --> 00:31:58,790
And then you're also using that solar energy to then slowly kind of trickle charge the
battery that I think for a lot of people, especially

346
00:31:58,790 --> 00:32:02,273
those who are like in multifamily or have to park on the street.

347
00:32:02,273 --> 00:32:11,819
This makes a lot of sense for kind of like avoiding and makes kind of EVs a lot more
practical than having to go like charge once or twice a week at a local charging spot.

348
00:32:12,760 --> 00:32:14,241
And I'm kind of curious.

349
00:32:14,241 --> 00:32:19,745
One of the things I and I guess in full disclosure, I actually did put down, I don't know.

350
00:32:19,745 --> 00:32:20,577
I guess I haven't told you.

351
00:32:20,577 --> 00:32:27,442
I put a hundred bucks down like a few months ago because when I first saw this, I saw like
that 3D

352
00:32:27,442 --> 00:32:30,462
Version of the Tesla and I was like, oh, okay.

353
00:32:30,462 --> 00:32:37,522
This isn't gonna go anywhere And then I saw a couple these folks like oh, they've actually
put it on a real car Okay, so they're at least past most of these things.

354
00:32:37,522 --> 00:32:38,222
You'll see online.

355
00:32:38,222 --> 00:32:48,042
They're at least trying to prototype and I was like, know what a hundred bucks why not I I
think I'm in a pretty fortunate position that we can pretty much charge at home anyway But

356
00:32:48,042 --> 00:32:53,922
I just think it's a really cool product and a really cool application because so many
people over the years

357
00:32:54,032 --> 00:32:58,313
when I've talked about EVs or asked, well, why don't you just make one of those like the
window of solar panel?

358
00:32:58,313 --> 00:32:59,593
Where should you put a solar panel on?

359
00:32:59,593 --> 00:33:10,295
And just the fact that matter is even if you had a 100 % efficient solar panel, just like
on that roof section, you're barely gonna be able to like make a whole lot of energy.

360
00:33:10,295 --> 00:33:20,739
But if you can grace that surface area like this does, you're not making a whole lot of
energy, but you're making enough that it really is justifiable and really does help with

361
00:33:20,739 --> 00:33:21,109
the experience.

362
00:33:21,109 --> 00:33:22,427
And like I said, it also just...

363
00:33:22,427 --> 00:33:31,245
has the advantage of cooling down the car during the day too, especially on hot days,
which I think is a really great advantage and good design.

364
00:33:31,245 --> 00:33:37,239
One question I have for you though is, I have seen other engineers and other people try to
mock up ways.

365
00:33:37,239 --> 00:33:44,676
so one way they do this, I think this is actually probably the most resilient and
streamlined and clean design.

366
00:33:44,676 --> 00:33:51,226
The one I have seen other people do is where they literally put 12 solar panels together.

367
00:33:51,226 --> 00:33:55,227
and it'll like go out in two directions.

368
00:33:55,588 --> 00:34:02,611
And I think price wise and other things and just engineering wise and weight wise, you
start running into a lot of weird issues.

369
00:34:02,611 --> 00:34:06,432
But I'm kind of curious, like, is that why you chose this designer?

370
00:34:06,432 --> 00:34:10,173
Kind of what what are some of maybe the variables?

371
00:34:10,374 --> 00:34:12,815
Obviously, trying to get as much sun as you can is a big one.

372
00:34:12,815 --> 00:34:19,497
But like, what were some of the tradeoffs kind of going through this design process that
had your team end up with this design overall?

373
00:34:20,416 --> 00:34:21,226
Yeah, awesome.

374
00:34:21,226 --> 00:34:22,527
Great question, Chase.

375
00:34:22,527 --> 00:34:26,137
And thank you so much for your backing, your support.

376
00:34:26,137 --> 00:34:30,570
We do have a reservation funnel for the EV solar charter, $100.

377
00:34:30,570 --> 00:34:34,092
And then we're going to be delivering this summer.

378
00:34:35,172 --> 00:34:42,595
I think the important thing, from a sales perspective here, if I could put my sales hat
on, is that GoSun always delivers.

379
00:34:42,595 --> 00:34:49,088
We have had, as I mentioned, think 15 products that we've launched via Kickstarter and
Indiegogo.

380
00:34:49,330 --> 00:34:56,592
And we have tens of thousands of customers that we've made happy with our newfangled
ideas.

381
00:34:56,592 --> 00:35:08,635
And we've always delivered and we've always made sure that what we deliver performs and is
protected and insured and you get your warranty with us.

382
00:35:08,876 --> 00:35:12,937
So we want to make sure that this thing works and works for the long haul.

383
00:35:12,937 --> 00:35:18,018
So I think that is the main answer to the question you'd ask.

384
00:35:18,294 --> 00:35:22,877
we certainly looked at like the sliding drawer, concepts.

385
00:35:23,078 --> 00:35:40,790
we did, we did an exhaustive exploration on, on the concept phase and with, you know, the
mechanisms costing a bunch, the, you know, the, the, the challenge of fitting things in

386
00:35:40,790 --> 00:35:42,511
such a small space.

387
00:35:43,111 --> 00:35:47,154
we, know, and, and really what would change my

388
00:35:47,296 --> 00:35:56,008
We changed our approach the most is that flexible solar panels have, there's a new
technology that's basically unbreakable.

389
00:35:56,008 --> 00:35:58,389
The translation is anti-crack.

390
00:35:58,389 --> 00:36:04,331
I believe this was a technology that was developed in China with these flexible panels.

391
00:36:04,651 --> 00:36:14,013
They are now able to withstand the abuses of pressure and torsion and compression.

392
00:36:14,013 --> 00:36:16,544
And of course, wind's going to...

393
00:36:16,544 --> 00:36:23,997
going to make things feral and then you have the consumer that does something stupid and
drops it.

394
00:36:23,997 --> 00:36:28,399
These panels are able to handle all of that.

395
00:36:28,639 --> 00:36:44,706
so that really helped us inform our process and say, you know, we can save the consumer a
whole bunch of headache and save us a bunch of really near impossible mechanical design

396
00:36:44,706 --> 00:36:45,918
exercises.

397
00:36:45,918 --> 00:36:52,892
and just allow them to lay this across the body of the vehicle or lay it across anything
anywhere.

398
00:36:52,892 --> 00:36:55,123
Like it doesn't have to go on a car.

399
00:36:55,123 --> 00:37:01,916
And it still gets its job done and you can, you don't have to treat it real nicely and
perfectly.

400
00:37:01,916 --> 00:37:05,803
And you don't have to be a highly trained engineer to get it to slide in and out.

401
00:37:05,803 --> 00:37:15,232
And then what happens when the, when the mechanism gets grimy and doesn't want to work
anymore and you start forcing it closed and it pops because it's made out of

402
00:37:15,232 --> 00:37:17,163
than carbon fiber.

403
00:37:17,544 --> 00:37:25,302
you know, we looked at it, you know, I'm sure this whole concept is going to get a lot
more invention and iteration over time.

404
00:37:25,302 --> 00:37:30,343
But I think the beauty here is that flexible solar has made made its way.

405
00:37:30,343 --> 00:37:42,560
I've got a prototype on my vehicle, a working prototype on on my Tesla Y and and it is it
is doing its job every day all day and I don't see

406
00:37:42,560 --> 00:37:50,571
I don't see any degradation or any point where it's going to, you know, like I'm hoping to
get a decade out of this first prototype.

407
00:37:50,571 --> 00:37:51,663
And that's how I use things.

408
00:37:51,663 --> 00:37:52,773
I'm not nice on them.

409
00:37:52,773 --> 00:37:54,653
My old job is to break them.

410
00:37:56,094 --> 00:37:59,074
And so that's kind of why we led into this.

411
00:37:59,515 --> 00:38:02,496
You might want to call it a little bit more simple of a mode.

412
00:38:02,496 --> 00:38:04,616
Like it's definitely version 1.0.

413
00:38:04,616 --> 00:38:11,466
The other thing about it and the way we wanted to approach the design is we really wanted
to make the

414
00:38:11,466 --> 00:38:16,410
the job on the consumer easier from an electronic standpoint.

415
00:38:16,410 --> 00:38:20,274
So we tried to pack, we basically packed like a power bank.

416
00:38:20,274 --> 00:38:37,577
You we took what's a typical, you know, small cooler or a toaster oven looking thing and
we made it flat and wide and stuffed it in the box so that you don't have wires going in

417
00:38:37,577 --> 00:38:39,266
and out of the vehicle and you don't...

418
00:38:39,266 --> 00:38:43,186
And you don't want your electronics in the car.

419
00:38:43,186 --> 00:38:44,586
They're going to overheat.

420
00:38:44,586 --> 00:38:50,606
So you want them somewhere where they can hurry up and exhaust because inevitably you're
going to be making heat here.

421
00:38:50,606 --> 00:38:52,426
Things aren't perfectly efficient.

422
00:38:52,986 --> 00:38:55,906
so those were kind of the big design things.

423
00:38:55,906 --> 00:39:05,826
then the cost of the thermo form, this big rooftop carrier case, I originally, when I
started down this path, I said, there's no way we're going to make one of those.

424
00:39:05,826 --> 00:39:09,246
That's going to cost like $50,000 in tooling.

425
00:39:09,452 --> 00:39:10,642
But I was wrong.

426
00:39:10,643 --> 00:39:14,735
And in fact, it's not a horribly prohibitive.

427
00:39:14,735 --> 00:39:20,207
We've already built a couple tools because we're going through the iterations of getting
our design just right.

428
00:39:20,368 --> 00:39:26,671
And the final tooling for something like that is really not, it's not super exacting.

429
00:39:26,671 --> 00:39:30,333
The tooling can be made out of aluminum instead of tool steel.

430
00:39:30,453 --> 00:39:33,615
And those are the kind of factors that also play in.

431
00:39:33,615 --> 00:39:38,037
our effort is durability, performance, and cost.

432
00:39:38,037 --> 00:39:39,438
We want it to be

433
00:39:39,722 --> 00:39:42,014
low cost and accessible.

434
00:39:42,014 --> 00:39:44,186
We want to be able to ship it to your door as well.

435
00:39:44,186 --> 00:39:55,966
So those are all big factors because we have the direct-to-consumer thing down and we
don't want to deviate and have to ship it via freight or have to force people to finance

436
00:39:55,966 --> 00:39:56,097
it.

437
00:39:56,097 --> 00:39:57,768
Those kinds of issues.

438
00:39:58,734 --> 00:40:01,834
But I think you actually had a lot of great points.

439
00:40:01,834 --> 00:40:10,194
One, yeah, you're right, actually, to really go back to I think part of the reason I also
felt comfortable wasn't 100%.

440
00:40:10,194 --> 00:40:13,674
It was one, you had the market and then two, you actually had a real one.

441
00:40:13,674 --> 00:40:18,374
But then three, when I actually started looking into this, like, oh, this company has
actually built other stuff.

442
00:40:18,374 --> 00:40:25,674
So like, I felt a lot more comfortable putting down on bucks versus like a normal
Kickstarter kind of thing.

443
00:40:25,674 --> 00:40:27,630
But yeah, I'm

444
00:40:27,630 --> 00:40:33,170
really interested in trying to share the screen again, but having some issues here.

445
00:40:33,870 --> 00:40:44,870
I'm just kind of curious like when you're going through this, cause it looks like in the
mockup, it shows it's got the normal like Tesla charge plug.

446
00:40:45,230 --> 00:40:55,074
Is that what you're kind of expecting this maybe version 1.0 to ship with or will there be
a few different versions if you have like a

447
00:40:55,074 --> 00:41:03,494
J1772 to speak the EV ProLance, but then I also see this kind of mockup for Transit
Sprinter Van.

448
00:41:03,494 --> 00:41:09,959
I was just kind of curious of what like you're seeing as options or how this kind of works
when this is delivered.

449
00:41:11,119 --> 00:41:11,439
Yeah.

450
00:41:11,439 --> 00:41:15,680
I know there's not an overabundance of detail on the website yet.

451
00:41:16,040 --> 00:41:18,330
We will be revamping that.

452
00:41:18,330 --> 00:41:21,181
This is like kind of a reservation funnel at the moment.

453
00:41:21,181 --> 00:41:29,664
And then we're going to work into like the proper pre-sale where it's like, this is
exactly what you're buying and kind of more on the detail side of how it works.

454
00:41:29,664 --> 00:41:35,565
What we've resolved is that we're literally providing a 110 volt outlet.

455
00:41:35,565 --> 00:41:36,781
That's the main thing.

456
00:41:36,781 --> 00:41:39,486
There's going be other sources of power.

457
00:41:39,554 --> 00:41:48,274
And then you, the consumer, by and large, you already have an EVSE cable that runs on 110
volt.

458
00:41:48,274 --> 00:41:52,314
Typically, it came with the car, free with the purchase of the car.

459
00:41:52,314 --> 00:41:56,854
And that's going to have your 110 volt plug.

460
00:41:57,394 --> 00:42:03,774
So we're now going to let you use your EVSE cable.

461
00:42:03,774 --> 00:42:06,014
If you don't have one, we can help you get one.

462
00:42:06,562 --> 00:42:15,362
our main output is just 110 volt and you can store your EVSE cable up inside the box.

463
00:42:15,482 --> 00:42:17,722
when you open the box, yeah.

464
00:42:17,722 --> 00:42:23,642
And obviously you can't use, you can't charge your car when you're going about when you're
driving.

465
00:42:24,362 --> 00:42:27,338
So, you know, it's...

466
00:42:27,338 --> 00:42:29,379
You're going to have to open that and get the solar out.

467
00:42:29,379 --> 00:42:31,439
And that's when you pull your EVSE cable out.

468
00:42:31,439 --> 00:42:32,758
It's already plugged in.

469
00:42:32,758 --> 00:42:41,442
you push the, you push, turn the inverter on, for example, it's also going to have an app
so you can control it from, you know, a hundred yards, 200 feet away.

470
00:42:41,662 --> 00:42:51,244
And, and, and then, you know, it, it puts out, in that case, you know, level one is
typically J 17 72.

471
00:42:51,244 --> 00:42:57,266
So, it's the most universal protocol for every EV.

472
00:42:58,343 --> 00:43:05,945
But, you know, us just providing 110 volt, we don't really have to get into the cords.

473
00:43:05,945 --> 00:43:07,515
no, that's a good point.

474
00:43:09,100 --> 00:43:10,600
And you're kind of right.

475
00:43:11,040 --> 00:43:18,520
If you're able to kind of put the EVSE up there and there isn't a cooling issue, which
there probably won't be, especially when you're dealing with only level one.

476
00:43:19,020 --> 00:43:20,200
Yeah, that kind of makes sense.

477
00:43:20,200 --> 00:43:21,020
It's kind of out of the way.

478
00:43:21,020 --> 00:43:22,420
It's probably secure.

479
00:43:22,420 --> 00:43:24,240
Is there a way you can lock it or something?

480
00:43:24,240 --> 00:43:26,560
Or I'm sure you guys have thought all this.

481
00:43:26,978 --> 00:43:27,878
Yep.

482
00:43:28,638 --> 00:43:31,278
That's probably been the biggest pushback.

483
00:43:31,978 --> 00:43:34,018
I'm in a pretty safe place.

484
00:43:34,018 --> 00:43:36,018
You probably are too.

485
00:43:36,478 --> 00:43:39,398
Cincinnati does not have a whole lot of theft pressure.

486
00:43:40,318 --> 00:43:49,498
But people out in San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, LA, mean, New York, they're like, are
you going to do?

487
00:43:49,498 --> 00:43:52,734
And so we of course have like multiple

488
00:43:52,734 --> 00:44:01,537
mechanisms for preventing theft, including basically an Apple air tag, where it's buried
somewhere, they can't find it.

489
00:44:01,537 --> 00:44:06,338
If it does get stolen, you can alert the authorities and track it.

490
00:44:08,499 --> 00:44:13,000
Solar, by and large, has not been subject to too much theft.

491
00:44:13,600 --> 00:44:17,641
People don't really understand solar very well or know its value.

492
00:44:17,641 --> 00:44:20,852
And maybe that goes back to the beginning of our conversation.

493
00:44:21,410 --> 00:44:25,911
And also, you know, it's not an easy thing to steal in that it's kind of bulky.

494
00:44:25,911 --> 00:44:29,976
know, solar in general is kind of a lot of surface area heavy parts.

495
00:44:29,976 --> 00:44:35,880
You often have it installed by a commercial installer and they've got pretty heavy duty
tools.

496
00:44:35,880 --> 00:44:43,095
You know, no doubt that somebody could take this if they had the right, you know, angle
grinders and they wanted to really get at it.

497
00:44:43,095 --> 00:44:43,971
that

498
00:44:43,971 --> 00:44:47,352
it and you really have to just ditch your car if you're going to let that happen.

499
00:44:47,352 --> 00:44:52,965
guess if someone's coming to your car with an angle grinder, then you're you're in a
really bad part of town.

500
00:44:53,226 --> 00:44:56,347
But no, it is kind of.

501
00:44:56,347 --> 00:44:57,608
Yeah, exactly.

502
00:44:57,608 --> 00:45:00,050
Now, that's a great point, because, you're right.

503
00:45:00,050 --> 00:45:08,454
That was one of the because I was thinking about when I was looking at this is like, you
know, I went on a road trip to meet a friend of mine who now lives in the Midwest and he

504
00:45:08,454 --> 00:45:12,136
unfortunately doesn't live in quite the safest area.

505
00:45:12,917 --> 00:45:25,438
And I was getting all sorts of Not since nothing went wrong I will say they were fun and
entertaining century mode Kind of recordings but in the moment and like right after I was

506
00:45:25,438 --> 00:45:36,397
like, holy crap there was some sort of there was gentlemen going through some sort of
thing that was Checking out the I mean he was clearly looking through the car and he had

507
00:45:36,397 --> 00:45:40,060
like a two-foot steel pipe with them

508
00:45:40,116 --> 00:45:43,008
Unfortunately, I made sure to leave nothing in the car.

509
00:45:43,008 --> 00:45:45,831
And so he didn't break into it.

510
00:45:45,831 --> 00:45:52,926
But I guess I would be curious just as someone who is a really big fan of Sentry mode, is
there any way that you can?

511
00:45:53,267 --> 00:45:57,110
Because I mean, obviously you do have the side cameras, which probably would be enough.

512
00:45:57,110 --> 00:46:04,936
But is there any way for like the front camera to not be blocked or anything like has that
kind of been worked into the design at all, I guess?

513
00:46:04,936 --> 00:46:09,225
And I I realize that may be kind of like that's really just a Tesla or

514
00:46:09,225 --> 00:46:12,977
maybe even Rivian specific issue, but I'm just curious about that.

515
00:46:13,442 --> 00:46:17,522
Yeah, it's specific to each vehicle.

516
00:46:17,522 --> 00:46:23,082
And I think that's another thing that we're really trying to go for is a universal fit.

517
00:46:23,502 --> 00:46:37,402
like, that conversation came up a lot with the EVSE, you know, like, are you using NACS
or, you know, and, know, thankfully, NACS is now a standard across the country, but it

518
00:46:37,402 --> 00:46:38,642
certainly wasn't looking back.

519
00:46:38,642 --> 00:46:42,954
So you got 10, 20 years of electric vehicles on the road and they're,

520
00:46:42,954 --> 00:46:43,994
standardized.

521
00:46:44,335 --> 00:46:54,859
Yeah, you know, we and we're trying to make this thing easy to rack on any and on any
essentially you do need a set of crossbars on your vehicle.

522
00:46:54,999 --> 00:47:02,222
But we want it to be like universally capable of crossbars on a Rivian on a Volvo on a
Tesla.

523
00:47:02,222 --> 00:47:06,924
And turns out the Tesla Model Y crossbars are super wide.

524
00:47:07,084 --> 00:47:10,906
And it'll still work, you know, and that's almost the threshold.

525
00:47:10,906 --> 00:47:12,106
I think they're like,

526
00:47:12,204 --> 00:47:18,217
three feet wide, typically crossbars are closer to two feet, you know, from center to
center.

527
00:47:18,918 --> 00:47:28,893
But, know, there is a little bit of room in between panels where you could consider a
whole, there's going to be plenty more learning here.

528
00:47:28,893 --> 00:47:31,044
And I love the feedback, Chase.

529
00:47:31,044 --> 00:47:38,048
I loved all the feedback we got about theft, you know, and this is not, again, this is
version one.

530
00:47:38,508 --> 00:47:42,070
We see a whole future in this.

531
00:47:42,302 --> 00:47:48,594
I was formerly in the solar carport world and that world has really blown up.

532
00:47:48,594 --> 00:47:54,165
course, solar industry by and large has completely exploded, a lot like the EV industries.

533
00:47:54,306 --> 00:48:03,088
And this is such a cool blend of the two and no doubt that this is just step one.

534
00:48:03,088 --> 00:48:10,430
We now, like for example, with our solar cooking devices, we now have five different ovens
in the market.

535
00:48:10,586 --> 00:48:14,888
And our first oven is doing fine and we've made improvements to it.

536
00:48:14,888 --> 00:48:25,703
But the ovens that proceed that are starting to follow that are really doing even better,
you know, because of course we learn things, we make them better, we make them faster,

537
00:48:25,703 --> 00:48:28,624
bigger, more efficient, all of that kind of stuff.

538
00:48:28,810 --> 00:48:34,224
So we should expect a 40 panel one for the Cybertruck and Rivians, is that what you're
trying to say?

539
00:48:34,593 --> 00:48:35,914
That's right.

540
00:48:35,914 --> 00:48:42,050
And it's going to turn into a tent that you can shelter.

541
00:48:43,529 --> 00:48:46,251
I Guess I I think that's what makes sense.

542
00:48:46,251 --> 00:48:57,060
I really appreciate the transparency all that one other question I guess is Are you I I
would imagine probably not but would you be able let's say you do have?

543
00:48:57,601 --> 00:49:01,785
Because a lot of people now do have solar panels for like camping or going off-grid.

544
00:49:01,785 --> 00:49:03,114
Would you be able to?

545
00:49:03,114 --> 00:49:11,579
plug those in in parallel as well or something with that and then it goes into that
battery or is that kind of just trying to do too much?

546
00:49:12,576 --> 00:49:13,276
No, you can.

547
00:49:13,276 --> 00:49:20,358
And you can do the same like with our solar panels.

548
00:49:20,358 --> 00:49:29,471
So you can take our solar panels and plug them into some other battery that you already
own from EcoFlow or Jackery or Blue Eddy or something.

549
00:49:29,471 --> 00:49:35,253
So we try to maximize universality, if that is such a word.

550
00:49:35,613 --> 00:49:39,754
And we definitely encourage people to sort of hack.

551
00:49:39,890 --> 00:49:43,413
or whatever, make our technology work for them.

552
00:49:44,034 --> 00:49:53,632
so I don't remember off the of my head what the full range of our DC input is, but it's
surprising what you can do now.

553
00:49:53,632 --> 00:49:58,266
Essentially, if you can dream of it, you can build it.

554
00:49:58,266 --> 00:50:06,713
Back 20 years ago when I was doing this kind of thing, it was super limiting and super
expensive and everything was so massive.

555
00:50:06,988 --> 00:50:18,611
But nowadays it's like you can stuff it all in this little suitcase and it can take all
kinds of different voltages and inputs and variabilities and still get that energy into

556
00:50:18,611 --> 00:50:19,212
the battery.

557
00:50:19,212 --> 00:50:23,253
And the battery's got all the safety integrated with the BMS.

558
00:50:23,253 --> 00:50:28,824
mean, it's just, it's literally like I said, like if you can dream it, you can build it.

559
00:50:28,824 --> 00:50:32,805
You know, often depends on your budget, but we're fortunate here.

560
00:50:32,805 --> 00:50:34,698
We've had like, we've had over

561
00:50:34,698 --> 00:50:41,810
I think we have like 1800 reservations, which is bigger than any reservation funnel we've
ever created.

562
00:50:41,810 --> 00:50:46,861
And essentially that means that like, we're taking our time to get this right.

563
00:50:47,022 --> 00:50:53,263
We're building this thing with our very best quality components.

564
00:50:53,263 --> 00:50:56,064
And that way everyone's delighted, you know?

565
00:50:56,064 --> 00:51:01,326
And in 10 years they're like, yeah, I got version 1.0 of that thing, you know?

566
00:51:01,326 --> 00:51:02,496
okay, you got...

567
00:51:02,496 --> 00:51:06,180
You got the newfangled unit with the tent and the integrated coffee maker.

568
00:51:06,180 --> 00:51:10,314
Well, I love my old school one that just charges my car.

569
00:51:10,440 --> 00:51:11,580
Right.

570
00:51:11,580 --> 00:51:24,820
Yeah, actually, I guess one other kind of question around that is, I well, I think to take
a step back, like what you said is so true and fascinating about solar cells and like how

571
00:51:24,820 --> 00:51:34,780
having ones that are very resilient and don't break easily is such a game changer and such
a big thing, because I don't think people fully appreciate when they see solar panels and

572
00:51:34,780 --> 00:51:36,460
all the stuff like, yeah, they're super heavy.

573
00:51:36,460 --> 00:51:37,830
There are all these things that.

574
00:51:37,830 --> 00:51:44,754
That's because the panel has to be so strong to protect the actual solar cells themselves,
traditionally because they're so delicate.

575
00:51:44,754 --> 00:51:48,766
The actual cells themselves are super light.

576
00:51:48,766 --> 00:51:57,091
And so like actually having with kind of the rise of thin film and other kind of
evolutionary solar technologies that really help make this possible.

577
00:51:57,451 --> 00:51:58,572
It's really cool to see that.

578
00:51:58,572 --> 00:52:04,455
Yeah, now we're starting to finally get some really strong ones that can kind of take a
beating and are perfect for this kind of application.

579
00:52:04,675 --> 00:52:05,922
So I guess.

580
00:52:05,922 --> 00:52:16,479
With these ones, are they like a and maybe this is kind of getting a little too nerdy for
some listeners, but is this a multi junction type of cell or is it just really a super

581
00:52:16,479 --> 00:52:19,451
resilient kind of traditional monocrystalline?

582
00:52:19,451 --> 00:52:25,004
I'm kind of curious of like what the actual cell is, if it's more like a thin film or a
little bit everything.

583
00:52:26,280 --> 00:52:32,072
It is monocrystalline and no, just a single junction.

584
00:52:32,933 --> 00:52:37,545
Like I said, I'm not even sure where this got developed.

585
00:52:37,545 --> 00:52:41,456
And every other manufacturer is going to claim that they developed it.

586
00:52:41,477 --> 00:52:47,119
And because this just happened in the last two years or something.

587
00:52:49,300 --> 00:52:53,792
I was in China back in December and I had to know, like my brain is just like...

588
00:52:53,792 --> 00:52:55,133
you have to show me this.

589
00:52:55,133 --> 00:52:57,424
I don't believe you, you know, type of thing.

590
00:52:57,424 --> 00:53:02,527
And so I went to several manufacturers and one that we're really happy with.

591
00:53:02,527 --> 00:53:09,651
spent like two days with them, like just going through it over and over and trying to
understand the way they're building these.

592
00:53:09,651 --> 00:53:22,697
But they literally have 11 layers of material, much of which is ETFE in this like sandwich
composite that they put it in their thermal laminator.

593
00:53:22,782 --> 00:53:23,898
And

594
00:53:23,986 --> 00:53:30,318
it enables what in the base layer is this mono crystalline standard cell that's super
thin.

595
00:53:30,318 --> 00:53:41,111
It's essentially a wafer and it enables it to move while maintaining strength.

596
00:53:41,832 --> 00:53:46,753
it's not that it's like a sheet so that it just can flap in the wind.

597
00:53:47,693 --> 00:53:50,292
And I know that like there's some thin film tech that

598
00:53:50,292 --> 00:53:54,042
is kind of hoping to do that, to be like super flexible.

599
00:53:54,042 --> 00:53:56,650
You can roll it up into a tiny little...

600
00:53:58,133 --> 00:54:03,260
In this case, you know, it has integrity, it has structure, like it...

601
00:54:04,239 --> 00:54:10,484
It's not so much that it's flexible, it's just that it can do very well being flexed or
being abused.

602
00:54:10,484 --> 00:54:14,006
That's of the traditional cells really kind of do struggle with.

603
00:54:14,836 --> 00:54:28,704
And the whole issue with the traditional cell, especially the flexible, is that not only
will the cell just crack because it got stressed with a torsion, it'll also get into

604
00:54:28,704 --> 00:54:31,015
microcracks.

605
00:54:31,135 --> 00:54:42,281
where over time, the production will fall off and this technology is not prone to
microcracking either.

606
00:54:42,868 --> 00:54:45,740
So that's what's so interesting and compelling here.

607
00:54:45,740 --> 00:54:49,674
Now, is it going to last as long as a framed solar panel?

608
00:54:49,674 --> 00:54:50,484
No.

609
00:54:50,484 --> 00:54:56,599
A framed panel, know, solar, the other cool thing about solar people don't realize is that
it lasts for 30 years.

610
00:54:56,599 --> 00:55:05,537
I mean, I have literally worked on solar projects that are still cranking that are like
almost as old as I am and I am.

611
00:55:05,537 --> 00:55:12,358
And they're over 40 years old, 40 year old solar stuff I've seen in the field and from the
early 1980s.

612
00:55:12,358 --> 00:55:14,738
Well, I think that is what's so cool about the technologies.

613
00:55:14,738 --> 00:55:17,078
I mean, that's what most of them are worried for.

614
00:55:17,418 --> 00:55:19,798
But ensure there'll be a little bit of degradation.

615
00:55:19,798 --> 00:55:27,578
But and to some way, it's very similar to like lithium ion battery chemistries that it
just degrades a little bit, but it keeps going.

616
00:55:27,578 --> 00:55:30,158
And I mean, there's I you're totally right.

617
00:55:30,158 --> 00:55:32,178
I forget like what the solar cell is.

618
00:55:32,178 --> 00:55:40,458
But there's one that's like, think almost 100 years old or over that in Dow Labs or
something somewhere that had like one of the first ones.

619
00:55:40,458 --> 00:55:41,456
And it just

620
00:55:41,456 --> 00:55:42,914
Just keeps going.

621
00:55:44,694 --> 00:55:48,626
Yeah, no moving parts, you know, so that's the beauty of it.

622
00:55:48,626 --> 00:55:51,187
Moving parts will find a way out.

623
00:55:51,187 --> 00:55:54,718
know, water will always find a way out of that pipe.

624
00:55:54,898 --> 00:55:58,269
Where in this case, it's just electrons moving through a circuit.

625
00:55:58,269 --> 00:56:07,603
And so, you know, if the thing doesn't last 30 years, we're trying, you know, we're
definitely shooting for a decade.

626
00:56:07,603 --> 00:56:09,619
We, I believe that these are going to last longer.

627
00:56:09,619 --> 00:56:12,915
I don't know if anybody really knows currently.

628
00:56:13,056 --> 00:56:18,710
with this new technology, how specifically durable it is in the long haul.

629
00:56:19,271 --> 00:56:25,035
We do know different maintenance protocol in terms of keeping things clean and dry and
that kind of stuff.

630
00:56:25,496 --> 00:56:38,557
But we've got flexible solar tech out here that we've had out in the blistering sun and
ice and wind and snow and dirt for a long time doing our tests and things are still

631
00:56:38,557 --> 00:56:40,948
putting out solid power.

632
00:56:43,014 --> 00:56:48,135
And this is a unique one in that you're going to have kind of a relationship with it.

633
00:56:48,176 --> 00:56:52,587
You're going to be packing it up at night oftentimes.

634
00:56:52,587 --> 00:57:02,039
mean, there might be times where you leave it out and you park it at the airport and you
want your car to charge over the course of a week or two and you can do that.

635
00:57:02,640 --> 00:57:10,342
And what's also cool is that if you want to do that and you're afraid of some kind of a
blow up windstorm or some big thundershower,

636
00:57:10,570 --> 00:57:14,479
you can strap it down to your to your wheel well as well.

637
00:57:14,479 --> 00:57:23,774
to ask you if it's got like any magnets or anything in it or if it's purely just more or
less gravity kind of holding it down and then you just attach to it if you want to really

638
00:57:23,774 --> 00:57:25,035
make it more secure.

639
00:57:25,634 --> 00:57:31,154
Yeah, just physical attachments, like basically little webbing.

640
00:57:31,434 --> 00:57:38,674
We looked at a wide variety of attachments as well, and grommets and magnets.

641
00:57:38,674 --> 00:57:41,294
Too many vehicles are aluminum.

642
00:57:41,354 --> 00:57:44,114
Certainly, think all Teslas are.

643
00:57:44,894 --> 00:57:48,354
And then a lot of the bumpers are plastic.

644
00:57:48,634 --> 00:57:54,234
so, yeah, we're just looking to kind of land it via strapping.

645
00:57:54,570 --> 00:57:57,522
most of the times you're attaching to the wheel well.

646
00:57:57,892 --> 00:58:00,732
Yeah, no, that makes a lot of sense.

647
00:58:01,232 --> 00:58:06,292
I realize we're kind of coming up on time, but I guess I am curious just given your
background.

648
00:58:06,332 --> 00:58:10,292
And I really do appreciate talking with all this and especially this EV charger.

649
00:58:10,292 --> 00:58:12,372
I'm very excited for it.

650
00:58:12,372 --> 00:58:20,112
When I was doing, when I was really full time in the solar space about a decade ago, like
it wasn't anything new, but it seemed like a lot of the breakthroughs are becoming more

651
00:58:20,112 --> 00:58:23,812
and more multifunction kind of cells and sure they were more expensive.

652
00:58:23,812 --> 00:58:27,168
And I guess for anyone listening to try and make it.

653
00:58:27,168 --> 00:58:30,559
I'm going to try and explain something pretty complicated, I think as easily as I can.

654
00:58:30,559 --> 00:58:40,353
But essentially, if a single cell like we've kind of talked about can maybe take anywhere
from 20 to 30 % of the light and convert it into electricity.

655
00:58:40,353 --> 00:58:48,917
The idea is you get a bunch of different types of cells that maybe one converts at 20,
maybe one converts at 10 and one converts at 15.

656
00:58:48,917 --> 00:58:56,860
And then altogether you add those up and you get a higher efficiency or higher conversion
closer to like 45 or 50%.

657
00:58:56,888 --> 00:58:57,618
and

658
00:58:59,279 --> 00:59:00,100
Camera might have died.

659
00:59:00,100 --> 00:59:09,846
So if you don't see me more, I can at least talk but that that's roughly the idea and I
always thought there's manufacturing issues with that and it seems like they've

660
00:59:09,846 --> 00:59:12,578
consistently been able to kind of improve upon that.

661
00:59:12,578 --> 00:59:24,265
But I was curious if you've seen anything about like if and and more generally I guess
where you see like the future of solar cell like efficiency going does it really need to

662
00:59:24,265 --> 00:59:29,438
become more efficient just needs to become cheaper or is there kind of a bit of both that
you see happening?

663
00:59:31,252 --> 00:59:43,206
Another awesome question and one I've had many, many times over the years in that I say
the efficiency is great right now at 20%.

664
00:59:43,206 --> 00:59:49,475
I'm blown away at how much I can get out of the surface area that I have available.

665
00:59:49,475 --> 00:59:55,479
And, you know, like if you have stationary applications, it's usually a non-issue.

666
00:59:55,999 --> 00:59:59,922
Energy density is a major issue in a mobile application.

667
01:00:00,246 --> 01:00:08,430
Heck yeah, it would help GoSun so much to have 50 % efficient solar cells for the EV solar
charger.

668
01:00:09,671 --> 01:00:22,318
And, you know, where energy density and weight are really, really critical, efficiency
matters by and large, like if you're flying an aircraft or again, mobile application.

669
01:00:22,318 --> 01:00:29,812
But by and large, there's so much surface area on our planet that even if solar cells are

670
01:00:29,954 --> 01:00:33,014
you know, they just stop becoming more efficient.

671
01:00:33,014 --> 01:00:41,634
It's only going to take up like one, maybe 2 % of the available landmass on the planet to
become a solar powered civilization.

672
01:00:41,854 --> 01:00:46,434
And again, I think that's another one of those like, wow, this is really possible.

673
01:00:46,434 --> 01:00:48,234
This is really viable.

674
01:00:48,594 --> 01:00:58,214
And then to put things into other contexts, you know, like photovoltaic is around 20 %
efficient by and large right now.

675
01:00:58,380 --> 01:01:00,381
photosynthesis, right?

676
01:01:00,381 --> 01:01:09,014
So a plant's ability to take sunlight and turn it into a sugar is usually far below 1 %
efficient.

677
01:01:09,695 --> 01:01:13,196
But yet, you know, we don't get upset with plants.

678
01:01:13,196 --> 01:01:16,297
And we don't also say you've got to grow faster.

679
01:01:17,058 --> 01:01:19,419
you're not fruiting yet.

680
01:01:20,059 --> 01:01:26,668
You know, the available land mass is so much more

681
01:01:26,668 --> 01:01:39,657
higher and more, the amount of solar hitting our planet is so epic that even if solar
cells were 1 % efficient, we really would be doing fine.

682
01:01:39,657 --> 01:01:51,195
It would just be more of a matter of, you know, distribution and getting that connected to
the grid, to population centers, to where the energy is being utilized at a manufacturing

683
01:01:51,195 --> 01:01:53,096
facility or what have you.

684
01:01:53,496 --> 01:01:56,202
So that's kind of my

685
01:01:56,202 --> 01:02:06,668
You know, I know it's going to change and increase the efficiency is going to increase and
certainly like on the the GoSun solar ovens, our efficiency can be over 70%.

686
01:02:06,668 --> 01:02:09,820
But we're making heat instead of electricity, right?

687
01:02:09,820 --> 01:02:12,830
So it's much, much lower value power.

688
01:02:13,512 --> 01:02:24,866
But but and there's like there's like these solar I really like solar PV and thermal where
you're making hot water as well as electricity because you're making the

689
01:02:24,866 --> 01:02:30,446
You know, the electric panel is more efficient because you're pulling your stripping heat
away from it.

690
01:02:30,446 --> 01:02:36,946
And then you're putting hot water in your tank for domestic showering and laundry and
such.

691
01:02:37,106 --> 01:02:44,146
That's a really cool application that hasn't gone, it hasn't done super well because of
the complexity of the two techs.

692
01:02:44,146 --> 01:02:50,726
And those, those are probably 40, 50 % efficient depending on, on, on how you're
calculating it.

693
01:02:52,322 --> 01:02:59,662
And I'm just, I'm just wanting to not hold my breath and wait for, for something, you
know, like, they're not efficient enough.

694
01:02:59,662 --> 01:03:02,702
Well, they're cheap as chips, like, get over it.

695
01:03:02,702 --> 01:03:06,462
You know, I'm going to wait till we figure out cold fusion.

696
01:03:06,462 --> 01:03:09,782
You know, I can have a little cold fusion reactor in my backyard.

697
01:03:09,782 --> 01:03:11,262
Like, well, good luck.

698
01:03:11,262 --> 01:03:13,562
I'm going to wait till they figure out hydrogen.

699
01:03:13,562 --> 01:03:15,942
Like I've heard all of this and it's like, fine.

700
01:03:15,942 --> 01:03:22,036
You know, meanwhile, you and I are driving on sunshine powering our households on the sun,
not paying utility bills.

701
01:03:22,036 --> 01:03:23,617
And yeah, we made an investment.

702
01:03:23,617 --> 01:03:24,627
had to be smart.

703
01:03:24,627 --> 01:03:34,493
had to, we had to figure out the right, the right apparatus, engineering, manufacturing,
you name it and get permanent and all that business.

704
01:03:34,493 --> 01:03:39,025
But you know, we did it today versus, you know, waiting.

705
01:03:39,025 --> 01:03:44,578
It's like, it's like a, when was the best time to plant, plant, when's the best time to
plant a tree?

706
01:03:44,766 --> 01:03:45,919
10 years ago.

707
01:03:45,919 --> 01:03:49,641
When's the next best time to plant a tree today?

708
01:03:49,641 --> 01:03:51,934
You know, like, like.

709
01:03:51,934 --> 01:03:54,466
If you can do it, like, yeah.

710
01:03:54,466 --> 01:04:03,323
concern is cost, I really do struggle to believe that a fusion reactor in your backyard is
going to be cheaper than solar anytime in the next 10 or 20 years.

711
01:04:03,323 --> 01:04:04,264
But exactly.

712
01:04:04,264 --> 01:04:07,066
It's just like the efficiency is already impressive.

713
01:04:07,327 --> 01:04:17,014
And I think what's even wilder is just how quickly the rate at which the cost is finally
come down and what applications there are.

714
01:04:17,014 --> 01:04:18,846
It just I completely agree with you.

715
01:04:18,846 --> 01:04:19,236
Limitless.

716
01:04:19,236 --> 01:04:20,395
And it goes back to the.

717
01:04:20,395 --> 01:04:27,691
Just the crazy fact how much solar energy hits the earth in a day, let alone consistently.

718
01:04:28,311 --> 01:04:32,235
Yeah, my apologies again, I guess the camera did die, but I'm glad you can still hear me.

719
01:04:32,235 --> 01:04:43,014
The one last thing, I mean, you brought up a good point and one of the interesting things
that I've seen a bit more, I don't think it's really that big of a pushback, but you've

720
01:04:43,014 --> 01:04:48,228
probably seen it too is where people are saying, they don't wanna see solar on farmlands
and stuff like that.

721
01:04:49,977 --> 01:04:52,718
We both kind of know why that doesn't really happen.

722
01:04:52,959 --> 01:05:03,224
And two, there's even been examples where it's actually purposely put on farmland so you
can have other crops and stuff indirectly grow with the shade, yada, yada, yada.

723
01:05:03,224 --> 01:05:08,252
But one of the areas that I think is even a I always kind of push back.

724
01:05:08,252 --> 01:05:09,768
It's like, OK, let's say we don't even do that.

725
01:05:09,768 --> 01:05:18,132
There are so many parking lots and other just blank land used for roads and everything
across the US.

726
01:05:18,493 --> 01:05:19,158
What?

727
01:05:19,158 --> 01:05:29,736
Do you see, and as soon as camp in this space, know traditionally there's been an issue
around cost sometimes to retroactively do it, but I just don't understand why there hasn't

728
01:05:29,736 --> 01:05:35,401
been more growth in putting in solar panels in parking lots and stuff like that.

729
01:05:35,401 --> 01:05:43,647
You have these large swaths of land that, and when you start really getting into the
science of it, you see how if you're especially in a place like Phoenix, get all the, you

730
01:05:43,647 --> 01:05:49,201
get these heat islands more or less where you have this black asphalt that's actually
increasing the temperature around it.

731
01:05:49,351 --> 01:05:51,053
And I just I'm curious.

732
01:05:51,053 --> 01:05:55,648
I know it's been priced traditionally, but it just seems like it's such an engineering
opportunity.

733
01:05:55,648 --> 01:05:57,328
Steel's obviously gone up in price.

734
01:05:57,328 --> 01:06:06,449
Is there an opportunity, think, in just making them out of concrete or some other kind of
almost precast kind of scalable way to really kind of change that around?

735
01:06:06,449 --> 01:06:09,041
Because I think there's a huge opportunity for that.

736
01:06:10,124 --> 01:06:10,875
Definitely.

737
01:06:10,875 --> 01:06:13,075
And I think that opportunity has grown.

738
01:06:13,075 --> 01:06:20,411
I mean, I was involved in that industry 15 years ago pretty heavily and it was burgeoning
at the time.

739
01:06:20,411 --> 01:06:22,783
I mean, it was really taking off.

740
01:06:22,783 --> 01:06:36,132
I haven't paid enough attention to know the size of the solar carport industry, but I
believe, like you look at Baja Carports, I mean, I think they're doing really well out

741
01:06:36,132 --> 01:06:38,976
west and they've got incredible relationships with

742
01:06:38,976 --> 01:06:44,431
the Home Depot's and Walmart's, I know Tesla Superchargers, a lot of those were happening.

743
01:06:44,431 --> 01:06:54,846
Yeah, think it's basically like, it's gonna ultimately double the cost of the installation
to go overhead so high.

744
01:06:54,846 --> 01:06:57,221
I think that's probably the main reason.

745
01:06:57,546 --> 01:07:07,550
It turns out today's world of solar installs, as you probably know, the biggest cost is
usually the racking and the labor.

746
01:07:07,608 --> 01:07:15,625
Which is crazy, because like 10 years ago it was the solar, and now it's crazy how much
that's come down and it's racking, which, yeah.

747
01:07:16,468 --> 01:07:16,978
Yeah.

748
01:07:16,978 --> 01:07:22,898
10 times, solar was like the cost and then racking and labor were nothing.

749
01:07:22,898 --> 01:07:25,318
But it's literally inverted.

750
01:07:25,318 --> 01:07:29,757
The solar cells are 10, 20 % of the project cost.

751
01:07:29,757 --> 01:07:38,318
It's all in the metal and the engineering, however we're attaching and the concrete or you
name it.

752
01:07:38,318 --> 01:07:41,203
And so if you can put them low, then

753
01:07:41,203 --> 01:07:44,814
then there's going be a lot less metal and engineering involved.

754
01:07:45,614 --> 01:07:53,435
Because of course, anything high like a flagpole is going to get hit by a lot more moment
when it gets hit in the wind.

755
01:07:53,435 --> 01:08:05,427
I think that's probably the major impediment, you know, when that same corporation or even
municipality has a big field, they've got five acres and they can just line that up with

756
01:08:05,427 --> 01:08:07,057
solar instead of the parking lot.

757
01:08:07,057 --> 01:08:09,078
It'll be twice as expensive.

758
01:08:09,078 --> 01:08:10,432
Maybe that's the

759
01:08:10,432 --> 01:08:11,032
the driver.

760
01:08:11,032 --> 01:08:18,986
And then yeah, you're right, like agrovoltaics, know, the multi land use is really a
growing thing.

761
01:08:18,986 --> 01:08:29,320
know West Virginia University is doing a really interesting project right now where they
put the cells on these like lower cost pole technologies.

762
01:08:29,320 --> 01:08:36,573
Like it's not as nice looking as you might find in a carport over a grocery parking lot or
whatever.

763
01:08:36,793 --> 01:08:39,298
And they have cattle underneath.

764
01:08:39,298 --> 01:08:47,858
And the grass is growing underneath the cells just as well, practically, because they're
up like 15 feet.

765
01:08:48,698 --> 01:08:51,418
And so they're getting high productive grass.

766
01:08:51,418 --> 01:08:52,958
The cattle are very happy.

767
01:08:52,958 --> 01:08:54,438
They're getting some shade.

768
01:08:54,438 --> 01:08:59,178
They're more productive and they're producing tons and tons of power.

769
01:09:00,498 --> 01:09:05,950
I mean, the idea that, you know, that we shouldn't use arable farmland for, you know,

770
01:09:05,950 --> 01:09:08,493
Solar is kind of hilarious.

771
01:09:08,493 --> 01:09:11,937
It goes back to the cultural realities, right?

772
01:09:11,937 --> 01:09:20,665
It's like, you know, we shouldn't use arable farmland for GMO corn, you know, or for
monoculture soybeans.

773
01:09:20,926 --> 01:09:24,616
It's just all in our perspective, you know, whatever.

774
01:09:24,616 --> 01:09:26,799
headline or kind of one liner.

775
01:09:26,799 --> 01:09:32,516
But then when you start, like, actually logically looking at a lot of this stuff, it just
doesn't really add up.

776
01:09:32,516 --> 01:09:41,153
if we're so efficient in our farming world that we all care so much about every acre of
soybean or corn.

777
01:09:41,994 --> 01:09:54,824
But I said earlier, a solar panel is probably going to be like 50 times more efficient
than a year of corn in terms of using the sun to do good for humanity.

778
01:09:55,145 --> 01:09:59,218
So it's kind hard to argue when it's 50 times more effective.

779
01:09:59,218 --> 01:10:01,614
It's like, guys, where are you coming from here?

780
01:10:01,614 --> 01:10:05,645
ethanol thing for our gas, and that didn't work out too well for a lot of reasons.

781
01:10:05,645 --> 01:10:10,647
But Patrick, clearly you and I could talk about this for a long time today.

782
01:10:10,647 --> 01:10:14,568
I just want to say thank you for coming on and really looking forward to this.

783
01:10:14,568 --> 01:10:22,860
And we'll probably have to have you on again soon once the first batch of these start
getting delivered, especially for the new EV charging thing.

784
01:10:22,860 --> 01:10:24,291
I'm really excited for mine.

785
01:10:24,291 --> 01:10:24,733
So.

786
01:10:24,733 --> 01:10:30,341
Thank you again for coming on and really great to be talking about the solar industry and
all the products that you guys are bringing to market.

787
01:10:31,478 --> 01:10:33,240
Yeah, thanks so much for having me, Chase.

788
01:10:33,240 --> 01:10:40,980
We'll have to get you your EV solar charger as soon as possible this summer, and we'll
look forward to being back some day in the future.

789
01:10:46,198 --> 01:10:48,700
That's a wrap on this episode of Grid connections.

790
01:10:48,700 --> 01:10:58,378
A huge thank you to Patrick Sherwin from GoSun for sharing his inspiring journey from
launching on Kickstarter with a solar oven to paving the way for off-grid solar powered EV

791
01:10:58,378 --> 01:10:59,409
charging.

792
01:10:59,409 --> 01:11:08,476
If this conversation got you fired up about solar's potential, or if you're just excited
about living cleaner and driving on sunshine, there's never been a better time to jump in.

793
01:11:08,476 --> 01:11:13,260
We've got plenty more fascinating guests and breakthrough renewable energy stories coming
your way.

794
01:11:13,260 --> 01:11:14,986
If you enjoyed this episode,

795
01:11:14,986 --> 01:11:19,127
Share it with at least one friend, colleague, or fellow clean tech enthusiast.

796
01:11:19,127 --> 01:11:23,469
Spraying the word helps us shine a brighter spotlight on innovators like Patrick.

797
01:11:23,469 --> 01:11:28,450
And while you're at it, please do us a favor and leave a positive review on our podcast
page.

798
01:11:28,450 --> 01:11:37,593
Your feedback makes all the difference in helping others discover Grid Connections and the
exciting world of sustainable energy solutions and clean transportation.

799
01:11:37,593 --> 01:11:40,956
Until next week, this is the Grid Connections podcast signing off.