RE: PV: re: midway labs story

[Jeff Clearwater <clrwater@mbs.valinet.com>]

Dear Colleagues,

>Re: Midway Labs.
>The recent comment about Midway Labs products
>being "substandard, they deserved to die...." I
think that is a bit harsh.

I highly agree with Robert that Doug was way too harsh on Midway.  I 
visited Midway's facilities in Chicago and met with Bob Hoffmann for 
the better part of a day.  We had a grant at the time to bring some 
investment monies into the solar industry, specifically the 
concentrator industry and Midway was a prime candidate.  Bob is one 
of those solar pioneers that grew tired of waiting for the "big boys" 
to do it and they just went ahead and built it.  Bob, if anyone, was 
aware of the shoestring nature of his operation and product.  But he 
felt strongly that to move concentrating technology along that 
someone had to take the risk and start.  Toward the later part of the 
companies life, Bob single handedly was building the concentrators, 
fielding phone calls, operating the business, and fundraising.  Not 
that this is great business practice.  But Bob really gave it his 
best.

There are many ways to bring out a technology.  Some would argue that 
anything less than "doing it right" has a negative impact on the 
industry.  But in a world where more is spent in a single day to 
defend the oil industry than solar has recieved in a decade, other 
ways are tried.  Bob's good faith effort to put together 
off-the-shelf products into a useable product to demonstrate the 
potentials of the technology is well appreciated in this camp.

We in the PV industry and Concentrator industry need to commend Bob 
for his efforts, focus on learning what lessons can be learned, and 
use the Midway experience to point to the strong potentials of 
concentrators, not to criticize the effort.  Midway's basic lens and 
cell technology were strong and well crafted.  The supporting harware 
was substandard in an attempt to make the overall product cost 
effective.  Bob showed that you can take a fresnel lens, an 
of-the-shelf-tracker and an available cell and make it work.

Midway failed because of lack of investment money and sufficient 
business experience, not for lack of good design or lack of heart. 
The technology is there,  It is the present political and economic 
and cultural climate that needs to change for renewables to step 
forward.  Let us appreciate the forces that Bob was working against 
and thank him for his efforts.  And then let's work to bring some 
major investment money to renewables so these kind of stories are not 
repeated.

Yours in service toward a sustainable future,

Jeff Clearwater
-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jeff Clearwater
Ecovillage Design Associates
Community Scale Appropriate Technology & Renewable Energy Systems
413-259-1900, clrwater@valinet.com

Research Director - Living Routes-Ecovillage Education Consortium 
http://www.LivingRoutes.org
Council Member - Ecovillage Network of the Americas  http://www.ecovillage.org
Focalizer - Sirius Ecovillage Office  http://www.siriuscommunity.org
Sirius Community, 72 Baker Rd, Shutesbury, MA  01072
(413) 259-1254, (413) 259-1255 Fax
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*
To unsubscribe send an email to majordomo@crest.org with the following
command in the body of the message:
unsubscribe pvusers
Email the list administrator at: owner-pvusers@crest.org
List sponsored by CREST/REPP
http://solstice.crest.org/   http://www.repp.org/