Solar is gaining ground as one of the most affordable sources of renewable energy. I did not know much about it until I met Chris Clark late 2009, but since then I have grown to understand the current state of the technology, how it works, and how it can be applied. While the company’s products and services are concentrated in solar technology they stand for something completely different. As an energy company they differentiate themselves by serving developing areas of the world to power clean water, health care, education, and food production systems. Sunflower is able to serve the developing world better than any other off-grid energy supplier by providing a simple and efficient system they call “Manual Solar Tracking”

Solar Tracking: By pointing the solar panels directly at the sun they achieve maximum efficiency. Typically tracking is done with light sensors, motors, and computer processors, but Sunflower designed a system that could be moved by hand, which works perfectly for the developing world. By removing the sophisticated components, The cost to install, total system cost, maintenance cost, all dramatically drop for the project and energy efficiency remains relatively high. For stats and figures visit their website . I helped to design the instructions (below) which tell customers how to position the system on a daily basis. They are customized to produce optimal energy output for unique areas using global positioning and data from NASA and NREL.

We communicated to businesses by presenting the product and distributing marketing collateral at local events for environmental sustainability and interviewed with press to tell the story of how the product can help the world. To date, the system has been implemented in Kenya, Nigeria, India, Haiti and the US with many more projects to come. This video is a testimonial from the pilot system at the Mbaka Oromo primary school in rural Kenya.