Solar CEO Ready for Next Challenge: The Eighth Grade
by Jeff McIntire-Strasburg, St. Louis, MO on 06.29.07
We've profiled and interviewed some pretty impressive CEOs over the years, but Calsunenergy's chief, Alex Boyer, definitely stands in a class by himself: he's still in middle school! Everything's relative, though: among his fellow company executives, Alex is the old man of the group. According to CNet,
The company--which is trying to develop a concentrator for solar cells and come up with a way to convert heat generated by solar cells into usable energy--is founded by kids in grade school and junior high. CTO Shaun Boyer will be in sixth grade in the fall. The VPs of marketing and sales will start fifth grade later this year.We're not sure if we're dealing with true prodigies, or if, as Hank at EcoGeek wonders, this is one of those cases of parents doing the real work behind the scenes. Either way, it will be interesting to see if these kids have their patent, or entertain buy-out offers, before they're able to drive. ::CNet via EcoGeek and Netscape ScienceThe company has one patent application on file and has entered the California Clean Tech Open, which gives prizes and office space to winners.
Image credit: Geri Kodey and NREL/DOE
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"come up with a way to convert heat generated by solar cells into usable energy"
Active cooling in solar concentrators (with a liquid such as water) as opposed to passive cooling in which the base metal plate works as heat sink - is not a good idea. The problem with it is that the moment your coolant fails, your cells fry. It also means that you need a constant supply of cold water.
There are other issues as well. I've spent a lot of time thinking about this and I don't think that the small gain is worth the additional cost of equipping a PV concentrator with water based active cooling.