How did we come up with this crazy idea?
In 2009 I became interested in the solar energy business. At that time, the idea of using parking lots for solar production was a relatively new idea, and there are strong subsidies in place to do so. It made sense: parking lots are built space, and you could increase the value per square foot by generating electricity in the same space where cars are stored.
Since I was operating some factories in Torreon Mexico already for a different business, I decided to come up with some designs that could be manufactured there at a competitive cost. The result was 'ShadeMax', a fixed structure that was competitive (shown attached), but soon the solar subsidies dried up and the market dropped down to zero for these things. Along the way I met many interesting people, among them was Guilden Gilbert in the Bahamas who took a strong interest in the technology and we discussed it off and on over the years.
Many years later Guilden was asked by a resort developer whether he had any good ideas for parking lot solar, as electricity prices were ever increasing and they were looking for some sort of energy cost control - was that something feasible?
Guilden called me and challenged me to come up with something that would meet this need.
It was clear that winds could get tough, and building codes already demanded 160mph wind resistance. Moreover, the aesthetics of putting lots of steel posts into the ground in a resort did not seem appealing. We had to come up with something that could generate the power, still open up to view the sky if needed, wasn't really ugly, and could survive winds over 160mph. The result is the Sabal Solar Canopy.
The developer loved it, thought it was the best thing he'd ever seen. It received so much attention we were soon talking to many other people about this and to my disbelief received an order for one sight unseen. Clearly, this had some legs.
The video attached is the first generation design that has some of the features the system does today. But it was the start of our journey, some four years ago!