Short Summary
We started Green Path Technology to design and produce innovative products for the residential Solar market. After spending several years selling, designing and installing conventional PV systems, panels and micro inverters on the roof, we identified opportunities for system and process improvements. Namely: cost, form factor and efficiency improvements were identified as ways to improve the systems available to homeowners and renters alike.
My background is engineering. I have a master’s degree in electrical engineering and over 20 years of product design experience. My partner and wife has a degree in accounting and has well over 20 years of experience in sales and marketing. We both felt compelled to try to make improvements to PV systems with respect to the homeowner's needs. The Joule Power Tree is the result of over 3 years of development and testing the mechanical and electrical systems that make up the whole Joule Renewable System . We are proud and excited to launch this Indiegogo campaign to get started with the production of the Joule Power Tree and get it into service with homeowners and renters all over the world.
What We Need & What You Get
The funding that we receive from our backers in exchange for the perks will be used to purchase capital equipment, rent a production facility and to hire a manufacturing team. Some of the capital equipment needed includes equipment associated with the assembly and testing of solar products such as encapsulation and lamination equipment and PV panel power output testers. We also use FMD (3D) printers to produce a number of the components of the Joule Power Tree so we’ll need to acquire several more FDM printers for the production of the Tree.
To show our appreciation to the backers for supporting us, we are offering Joule Power Tree perks. We will offer 4 different models of the Tree with different features:
- Model 500 w/o Batteries: 500 Watts (5kWh/day), no batteries
- Model 500 w Batteries: 500 Watts (5kWh/day), 1000wh Batteries
- Model 1000 w/o Batteries: 1000 Watts (10kWh/day), no batteries
- Model 1000 w Batteries: 1000 Watts (10kWh/day), 1000wh Batteries
Risks & Challenges
- Production processes risks. The biggest risk to the timely delivery of the perks, the Joule Power Tree, to our backers is the development and success of a production process to produce the many components of the tree. Just as a real tree has many, many leaves, the Joule Power Tree has many, many solar cell leaves. While we have successfully produced many leaves to date and have contracted manufacturing from outside of our company to mass produce the leaves, the challenge still remains to produce the leaves in great quantity, with high quality and at a cost that will keep us competitive. We are qualified to overcome this particular challenge because of our strong ties to companies in the manufacturing industry specific to PCB and PCB assembly. We have already approached several build-to-print manufacturers to provide us with quotations and methods of manufacturing that look extremely favorable and promising, but not yet proven.
- Materials acquisition risks. The second biggest risk to timely delivery of the product is the risk associated with the procurement of the materials needed to produce the Joule Power Tree with short lead-times and at a price that will keep the cost of the Joule Power Tree low. The Joule Power Tree units that have been produced to date use components that were purchased from vendors that stock the items and offer the value-add to their customers of timely deliver, but at a substantial cost. We need to seek out vendors that will deliver quickly and allow us to take advantages of cost savings realized by economies of scale. While this is a challenge, we are qualified to solve this problem also by use of our network of manufacturing partners. We intend to leverage our relationships fostered over the years with manufacturing companies and their procurement departments to help us find vendors that can and will deliver the materials necessary for the mass production of the Joule Power Tree.
- Manufacturing Team Assembly Risks. The third and final risk to the delivery of the perks to our backers is the risk of finding good help. It will take time to spin-up a work force to build the Joule Power Tree once the production processes are in place. We will again rely on our network of manufacturers to assist us with this effort. We have made plans to seek out the facility in a familiar city and where we know many capable and willing workers to get this activity off the ground.
Other Ways You Can Help
If you are as passionate as we are about “GOING GREEN,” but cannot be a backer at this time, please share the campaign info and the many social media links with your family, friends, and networks to help us get the word out. Please like, share, and subscribe to our posts (www.JoulePowerTree.com) . This is a HUGE help to us and is GREATLY appreciated. Thank you very much.
