ACR Solar’s Cool New Tech

ACR Solar’s Cool New Tech

Ever felt the heat from a building on a summer day and thought, “That heat is solar energy being wasted, that heat energy cost me more energy to cool my home!”  Well a Sacramento stalwart entrepreneur had the same thought.

Having worked with both PV and Thermal solar, ACR Solar saw an opportunity to increase building insolation, PV efficiency, and provide hot water to houses.  How?  By combining three decades of solar thermal with decades to PV experience to build an efficient solar thermal under a PV array, working to cool both the PV for increased efficiency and the roof for increased insolation all while heating pool or pre heating water for a tankless heater.  Introducing the ACR MegaMat.

The MegaMat is unique with features that allow it to be installed under solar electric giving it better performance and advantages in flexibility, ease of installation, and retrofitting.  All of this allows people to heat their pool, increase the efficiency of their solar, reduce their carbon footprint and protect their house from direct sun heat. ACR refers to this as a PVT hybrid (Photovoltaic Thermal) with international uses.

Other companies have done similar things but none have the experience or ingenuity of ACR Solar. Decades of experience in installing and manufacturing Thermal and PV. While the concept is simple the skills required to make a successfully scalable product are not.

ACR Solar is a local family run employee owned company that has installed solar since ‘79. Founded by Al Rich they made a name for themselves by not only installing photovoltaic, but Manufacturing thermal solar water heaters here in Sacramento. The solar thermal water heaters can function to provide hot water on their own or work with a tankless heater to increase efficiency.  El Novillero Restaurant (off Jefferson Blvd), the Rancho Cordova and Roseville Brookfields Restaurants, as well as the 1,180 square foot Prairie City Assisted Living Home off Willard Dr. in Folsom will use thermal solar manufactured and installed by ACR solar.

For more information contact ACR Solar.

Thomas Hall

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Thomas is the Executive Director of CleanStart. Thomas has a strong background in supporting small businesses, leadership, financial management and is proficient in working with nonprofits. He has a BS in Finance and a BA in Economics from California State University, Chico. Thomas has a passion for sustainability and a commitment to supporting non-profits in the region.

CleanStart Sponsors

Weintraub | Tobin, Moss Adams, River City Bank, GreenbergTraurig

BlueTech Valley, PowerSoft.biz, Revrnt, Synbyo, Califronia Mobility Center

Company Profile Integrated Comfort

Company Profile Integrated Comfort

Congratulations to Integrated Comfort Inc. (ICI) for being acquired by Seeley international! Seeley international is Australia’s largest air conditioning manufacturer and a global leader in developing ingenious, energy-efficient cooling and heating products.

Lead by Dick Bourne’s (CEO) technical expertise and Steve Short (CFO) ICI has successfully grown and garnered international attention to the HVAC retrofit. With Seeley’s purchase they will continue their their  growth scheduled for 2018.  Steve believes the acquisition will provide ICI a significant potential to scale in the long run given Seeley’s in-depth HVAC experience and international experience and ICI will be able to offer Seeley a presence in the fast growing United States HVAC market.

Integrated Comfort develops retrofit solutions for commercial rooftop air conditioning. They use evaporative cooling to increase the efficiency of existing HVAC products. ICI is headquartered in West Sacramento, California and recognized as a rapidly growing clean technology manufacturer in the region. Within less than three years, the size of the team has grown from two full-time employees to fourteen. Also, the management team is confident about the future potential as ICI continually builds out a well-diversified customer portfolio while maintaining a very strong long-term business relationship with a great customer, WalMart.

ICI’s patented products, DualCool and Coilcool are demonstrated to be efficient mechanical cooling systems that reduce peak electrical demand up to 40% and reduces cooling energy consumption up to 35%. As of 2017, Integrated Comfort has installed more than 2,500 units of DualCool units at 380 WalMart stores across seven states in the South West.

ICI’s competitive advantages come from Dick Bourne’s decades deep experience in energy efficiency. After being  a founding member of the Davis Energy Group Dick joined UC Davis in 2006 and formed the Western Cooling Efficiency Center (WCEC).  Dick left the WCEC in 2009, and joined ICI as an owner to focus on growing the company and the deployment of a suite of energy efficiency solutions which he had been the primary inventor of.   His background and leadership has enabled the company to be highly innovative through collaborations with research institutions and manufacturers.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Qidong is a CleanStart Associate who follows new technologies that can connect with his passion for sustainability, education and economic empowerment. Helping CleanStart and clean tech startups in the Sacramento Region, he is looking to help positively impact the world. He recently graduated from UC San Diego and has a B.S. in Managerial Economics. His multicultural background helps companies approach problems from new perspective.in the region.

CleanStart at the Sacramento Innovation Awards

CleanStart at the Sacramento Innovation Awards

The Sacramento Innovation Awards is one of the most exciting times of the year. Last year, it was my first major event with CleanStart. This year, I got to see companies I knew personally and professionally compete for recognition and awards. A number of companies CleanStart reported on in 2017 have made quite an impact.  At the 2017 Innovation Awards, three companies promoted by CleanStart through engaging our network and dissemination of company profiles competed in two categories.

Athena intelligence was a finalist for the ag-tech category. Athena Intelligence uses a big data solution to evaluating the cost of farming, encouraging farmers to better utilize their resources, which they term the Internet of Earth (IoE). Terzo Power and Tenkiv went head to head in the sustainability category. Terzo Power is making a revolutionary hybrid platform for tractors, enabling hydraulic systems to operate with a constant running diesel engine. Tenkiv, who won the 2017 sustainability award, submitted the Tenkiv Nexus, a combination solar heat and PV solution to water scarcity.

Listening to them all pitch to stakeholders in the Sacramento region reaffirmed CleanStart’s belief and goal of Sacramento becoming a Clean Tech hub.  Personally, it was hard for me to watch,  Terzo and Tenkiv compete in the same category, I desperately wanted some sort of tie. The Award went to Tenkiv, but I know Terzo will make big splashes in 2018.

The 2016 winner of sustainability, Sierra Energy, went on to build their FastOx plant in Fort Hunter Liggett.  Terzo has major grant support for 2018 and Tenkiv is getting ready to manufacture.  So, I am looking forward to both Terzo and Tenkiv to have benner years in 2018, hopefully bigger than Sierra Energy’s 2017.  Athena Intelligence is continuing to grow as they demonstrate the benefits of using big data to farm.

The Innovation Awards are put on by CleanStart supporters Stoel Rives and Moss Adams.  Both these companies  continue to support CleanStart in our mission to build Sacramento as a Clean Tech Hub. After an exciting 2017, I think 2018 will be even bigger.

Thomas Hall

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Thomas is the Executive Director of CleanStart. Thomas has a strong background in supporting small businesses, leadership, financial management and is proficient in working with nonprofits. He has a BS in Finance and a BA in Economics from California State University, Chico. Thomas has a passion for sustainability and a commitment to supporting non-profits in the region.

CleanStart Sponsors

Weintraub | Tobin, Moss Adams, River City Bank, GreenbergTraurig

BlueTech Valley, PowerSoft.biz, Revrnt, Synbyo, Califronia Mobility Center

CleanTech Stocking Stuffers

CleanTech Stocking Stuffers

Hey Cleantech and sustainability enthusiasts! Thomas Hall, Executive Director of CleanStart here, and I want to share some home-grown holiday gift ideas for your friends and family. In Sacramento, we have many good citizens who take pride in not only supporting entrepreneurship and innovation in our region, but also in committing to reduce their carbon footprint. Below are a handful of gift-giving ideas from local clean tech startups that will help you accomplish both objectives!

Have a tech enthusiast who wants quality personal solar? Check out California Sunlight! They have everything from solar chargers to solar cookers. Founder Bing Gu has been building quality personal solar products for nearly 10 years. There is the popular Solar Balloon Cooker that is great for backpacking and is the lightest solar cooker available. Or consider: the solar Square: it can charge in a car window and power your mobile phone!

Have an Electric Vehicle enthusiast on your list? Buy them an EVAA membership so they can stay up-to-date on all issues in future transit. They can also participate in the local Chapter and make a difference as the Sacramento Region is Electrified. They’ll learn more about topics such as Chargepoint’s growth, the VW settlement, and much more.

Do you know someone who commutes in the most sustainable way but has the “Last Mile” problem–having to walk from public transit to their destination?. Get them a Glide Cruiser from from Christopher Wiggins. He builds them locally and they’ve even been featured on regional news. Every year he takes them to Burning Man, so if you have a Burner in the family, the Glide Cruiser is a great option.

It there a tinker you know that wants to manage their entire household energy use and save 15-30% in energy costs? Introduce them to Grid Rabbit. Henrik Westergaard’s energy management product has helped many groups lower their carbon footprint.

Finally, you can give the gift of Sacramento’s sustainable future to our region by donating to the CleanStart Catalyst crowdfunding campaign. Your tax deductible donation will support the acceleration of clean tech startups in the Greater Sacramento area. And if you become a Catalyst, Clean Start will stuff your stocking with a California Sunlight Solar Square!

Thomas Hall

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Thomas is the Executive Director of CleanStart. Thomas has a strong background in supporting small businesses, leadership, financial management and is proficient in working with nonprofits. He has a BS in Finance and a BA in Economics from California State University, Chico. Thomas has a passion for sustainability and a commitment to supporting non-profits in the region.

CleanStart Sponsors

Weintraub | Tobin, Moss Adams, River City Bank, GreenbergTraurig

BlueTech Valley, PowerSoft.biz, Revrnt, Synbyo, Califronia Mobility Center