Keeling Curve

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Project Summary / Description:

Falling solar panel costs helped the solar industry grow 40% per year; however, it‚ now stabilizing. To increase ROI, 90% of new solar capacity is tracked (moved by a system to face the sun). Currently, these trackers are too heavy and costly for residential solar.

Formed from tinkering in a lab, we utilized shape memory alloys to create a non-electric tracker. Our lightweight tracker is priced at $500 versus current trackers at $6,000. Since it‚ retrofit-capable, installation is simplified to reduce labor costs. Our vision is to bring tracking to rooftops and developing economies that want to adopt affordable renewables.

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Best Estimate of GHG Avoidance/Reduction of This Project (Tonnes CO2 Equivalent/Year):

Impact on Underrepresented Groups:

Our first advisor was Malvika. She has been able to give a fresh perspective on our strategy since her involvement at McKinsey has been mainly in the tech sector, which tends to have much faster timelines. She has recommended better ways for us to prototype faster and focus on customer needs.

Even though we are a for-profit company, we intend to commit to a pilot program with Sawayra. They are a non-profit solar installer that creates microgrids for hospitals in Pakistan. Helping disadvantaged communities have reliable clean power during the day is an impactful way we can give back to the community. By operating in remote areas that have minimal infrastructure and difficult climates, we can hard test our system as well.

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Mission Statement:

Over 90% of new solar capacity is installed with trackers, but these systems are too costly and complex to maintain. Sun Co. Tracking is developing passive solar trackers that drastically reduce cost while maintaining increased panel efficiency through shape memory alloys that don‚ t utilize any electrical components. Our goal is to bring solar tracking to the over 1.8 million homes with solar in the US and to the low-income microgrid projects in remote communities around the world.