Areas of Expertise:

Clean Energy, Energy Economics, Energy Efficiency, Innovation, Renewables, Solar

I co-founded my first renewable energy company, International Solar & Energy Conservation, in Denver, Colorado in the late 1970s. We sold solar thermal, wind, window coverings, and other energy-related technologies and products.

After moving to Utah to build first a 20 gph and then a 50 gph ADU (feeding the Brewer's Grains to a very happy LDS Dairy Herd, and as a result increasing milk and butterfat production by 30%0), I became involved in the Personal Computer and subsequently, the PC-based electronic publishing industry, where (I am told), I was a pioneer. In the Go-Go 1990's, I took a company public that was creating a 'hits in context, multi-lingual search engine' (a la Google -- they came to see my engine at Networld in 2000).

After a run-in with Cancer coincident to the turn of the century, I returned to the 'energy business,' first in the Power Quality Sector (where we were able to vastly improve power factor), I returned to renewable energy. I started with a tiny Solar PV company ($250K sales in 2010, the year before I arrived) that concentrated on doing residential Battery Backup systems. I head their sales and marketing organization, and we will do $3mm this year in PV Battery Backup and Grid Tie Systems. Our client base in now commercial and residential. I live in Utah.

I work for Progressive Power Solutions (www.ppswest.com) and write TheNRGBlog (www.thenrgblog.com).

Recent Comments by James W Johnston

• "From a theoretical perspective, it is not unrealistic to require a higher standard for coal emissions than is presently available. Naturally, it must "
  The Economic Impacts of Eliminating Coal from Our Energy Portfolio