October 2019 saw the largest power outage in California’s history. Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) cut power to 700,000 homes and businesses, leaving over one million individuals (including our co-workers at Real Goods) without power for more than two days….
Read more
Salt Lake City, Utah SPI was held in Salt Lake City for the first time this year – and it was a hit. The weather was clear, the city welcoming, and displays impressive as always. It’s a great way for…
Read more
Inverters Through The Years Any talk about solar power tends focus on the solar panels. Today let’s examine a less visible, but equally vital component of the modern home solar power system – the inverter.
41 Years of Real Goods In August of this year altE acquired Real Goods, the original purveyor of off-grid living supplies. altE’s founding CEO, Sascha Deri, commented, “As a teenager I remember reading the Real Goods catalog and Solar…
Read more
The History of altE U They say knowledge is power. Never were the two so analogous as when altE taught classes on the design and installation of alternative energy systems.
Advantages of Solar Energy Through The Years In the beginning… Light has been around since the beginning of time, but understanding how to convert it into electricity is relatively new, right? It depends on your perspective and definition of “new.”…
Read more
Designing a Large-Scale Commercial System People often ask: “What’s the difference between designing a larger commercial array versus a residential system? It’s just more panels, right?” In truth it’s a little more complicated than that. It’s an interesting exercise…
Read more
Location, Location, Location In real estate they say the three main indicators for a desirable property are “location, location, location.” This held true for altE, and Sascha also found that location can make for a good story.
The Human Factor To mark altE’s twentieth anniversary this May, I sat down with founding CEO Sascha Deri to learn more about the company’s formative years. This is the second part of that interview. Approaching July 4th we reminisce about…
Read more
Startup Memories Last week I sat down with Sascha Deri, CEO of altE, to learn more about the company’s formative years. I asked if he started any companies before altE, and his answer surprised me.