What do you get when you mix chocolate and wine? In the case of Clean Solar, Inc., you get solar. Silicon Valley Entrepreneur, Randy Zechman, is the founder of City Chocolate Fountains (the largest chocolate fountain rental company in the United States). Jeff Ritchey is a San Jose native and wine guru. He is a wine consultant for Pichetti Winery, San Saba winery, and has two of his own labeled wines. Together, they are the co-founders of Clean Solar, a Silicon Valley solar installer and integrator.

Randy Zechman will readily admit that he is a serial entrepreneur. Just over a year ago, with two successful businesses in his portfolio: City Chocolate Fountains and World 2 Do, Inc., Zechman was ready for a new challenge. Zechman and a friend of eight years, Jeff Ritchey, an award-winning winemaker, regularly attended a monthly Bay Area speaker series with a group of friends. After every speaker they would end up at a local restaurant debating the subject matter of that night’s speech, global warming and the health of the earth were often the center of those debates, which resulted in them seeing Al Gore speak at the State of the Valley conference in early 2007.

After seeing Al Gore speak on solutions for protecting our planet, Zechman began to research the solar power industry. Ritchey, while continuing to grow his label, Sensorium Wines, was also showing increased interest in the green movement, realizing that green technology was an ideal fit with his knowledge in geology, winemaking and construction.

Zechman knew that the scientific and construction skill set that Ritchey could bring to the table would be the perfect compliment to his business and marketing skills, which led him to approach Ritchey about starting a solar power company.

Zechman and Ritchey met weekly for 6 months, discussing the in and outs of the business and making sure that their ambitions would not get in the way of their friendship. “We had a heart to heart regarding our friendship versus business. We both believed we could manage both and that our friendship would not get in the way.” says Zechman.

“We’ve been friends for eight years and never thought about getting into business with each other, but this presented the right opportunity. With the market timing, our passion for doing something good, Randy’s sales and marketing experience and my technical and construction abilities, we figured it was a natural fit.” says Ritchey.

Clean Solar Inc. quickly became a reality and is now the Bay Area’s leading solar installation company. The fuel for their business growth is in the form of state rebates through the 10 year, $3.4 billion California Solar Initiative. While silicon is still in short supply, the rebates offer customers a chance to significantly lower the installation cost of a solar power system. Zechman and Ritchey are committed to staying ahead of the curve and being early adopters of new solar technology as it comes on line. “We want the Clean Solar team to stay abreast of the latest advancements in technology, maintain certifications, and educate ourselves in order to provide our customers with the knowledge they need as a solar owner.” says Zechman.

About the Author:

Isaac Riggins is a solar consultant for Clean Solar, Inc. He can be reached at 888-551-7652 or http://www.cleansolar.com

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com - Wine and Chocolate Create Solar Power

The go green movement is another area were the US is going to fall behind. Our laws restrain the necessary development as well as our need for sustainability. Unlike other countries around the world we in the US have not deemed sustainability and conservation as a high priority in our future existence. This being said we are far behind other nations in building long term infrastructures. Don’t get me wrong, I have faith in the US and feel we’ll eventionally make the changes to benefit our race on a global scale we’ll just have to buy it from someone else.    

Another great idea they had to save energy was to make their billboard advertisement run from the sun. Check out the video, this is a really cool concept they came up with. 

The Union of Concerned Scientists has created a clean energy blueprint. One component of this blueprint is efficiency standards on furnaces and automobiles. The CAFE standards for automobiles stipulate that a company's cars must average a certain fuel mileage. The diagram below illustrates the effects of the new standards proposed in the blueprint. Look at the savings in millions of barrels per day and compare those values to our daily consumption of petroleum (175 million barrels for North America).

By looking at the diagram below and comparing current usage to savings under the clean energy blueprint there would be substantial savings of oil. With the current consumption of oil at 175 million barrels a day the clean energy blueprint would save an estimated 230 million barrels of oil in the year 2008.

The clean energy blueprint also finds that the US can meet at least 20 percent of its electricity needs by renewable energy sources-wind, biomass, geothermal, and solar-by 2020. This would reportedly save the US consumers $440 billion by the year 2020. By the clean energy blueprint this would also reduce the need for 975 new power plants and reduce the need for natural gas by 31% and coal by 60%.

The clean energy blueprint is a large undertaking and would require multiple industries to participate. This could be difficult due to the changes could eliminate the need for their industry.

References

ucsusa.org. Retrieved November 9, 2008, from www.ucsusa.org Web site: http://www.ucsusa.org/clean_energy/solutions/big_picture_solutions/clean-energy-blueprint-a.html

Retrieved November 9, 2008, from ian.umces.edu Web site: http://ian.umces.edu/

I was up in Big Bear Lake california yesterday and it was really cool to see the city had put solar panels on top of their bus stops. I wonder if they have the bus shelters completely off the grid and what kind of power the two panels put out.