The Soluz System
You'd think that technology CEOs would take certain basics — like electricity — for granted. But Tech Pioneer Richard Hansen, the 48-year-old CEO of Soluz in Chelmsford, Mass., has his eye on the 2 billion people — some 400 million households — in the developing world who lack access to electric power. Soluz is using a wireless system based on solar-powered photovoltaic (PV) cells to electrify the homes of about 6,000 rural customers in Honduras and the Dominican Republic.
The Soluz system doesn't differ from older solar-powered technologies; rather, the company has innovative financial and collection software and aims to make rural electrification into a viable business. The system is comprised of PV panels mounted on a pole chained for security reasons to a customer's house, store, school or clinic. Connecting wires link up to a control unit and storage battery, so that the saved-up solar energy can be used when needed to run lights, radios, cell phones, TVs and small appliances.
While solar-generated power remains too expensive to compete with the electric grid in more developed countries, government-subsized installations are cropping up in Europe. (High-profile installations include the German Bundestag and Holland's Floriade flower show.) Experts predict that once PV cells can be set in plastic instead of glass, they'll turn up all over, even on the sunroofs of cars.
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