Darren T Kimura – Energy Entrepreneurship

Innovation Award:

Sopogy

Being Part of the Solution to Big Global Problems

Growing up in Hilo, Darren Kimura saw dock strikes and the closings of sugar plantations and wondered why Hawaii’s people could not be part of their own economic solutions. When the University of Hawaii graduate decided to start a solar-energy business, he chose the much-riskier route of creating new technologies rather than distributing and selling existing products and services.

“Hawaii not only imports oil and exports our dollars for our energy, but we also import technology for renewable energy and export dollars for that, too,” he says. “Renewable energy is the new agriculture and technologies can be designed, developed and deployed here, bringing clean green power to the Islands, but also sold around the world from Hawaii.”

As proof, Sopogy’s invention and manufacture of a unique solar concentrating panel has evolved a new technology called “MicroCSP” (Micro-Concentrating Solar Power), a miniaturized version of larger, decades-old CSP technologies operating in the world’s hot deserts. Reducing the size and improving the durability for a proven solar-energy technology means places like Hawaii – with an ocean salt and volcanic atmosphere, limited land space and tropical-storm weather – can harness sunlight on a large scale for energy.

In December, Sopogy unveiled the world’s first and largest MicroCSP facility, a 4-acre, 500-kilowatt-capacity solar farm in Kona on the Big Island, which can power more than 250 homes and cut oil imports by 2,000 barrels annually. The company says its scalable and modular MicroCSP solar-power collectors, together with its proprietary technologies, have caught international attention and a project is now proposed for Spain. From 2007 to 2008, revenues for the Honolulu-based company of 30 employees soared 680 percent.

However, Kimura says, it wasn’t an overnight success for Sopogy, which is an abbreviation of the words solar-power technology. He started the company in 2002 with his own money and spent the first five years without a profit, while focusing on the development of CSP intellectual properties.

New uses being explored for Sopogy’s technology include creating clean drinking water from sea water and manufacturing portable refrigeration units for farms. These uses are all part of the small company’s big ambition to be part of the solution to the global problems of climate change, energy security and sustainability.

“The culture of innovation has been, and remains, the key to Sopogy’s growth,” says Kimura. “We have the intelligence here in Hawaii to make us the beacon for the rest of the world when it comes to clean and green power.

-By Gail Miyasaki

Let’s turn Copenhagen into Hopenhagen. Sign the UN Climate Petition and make change happen @ http://hopenhagen.org

SopoFlare™ is a unique product bringing concentrating solar power to the commercial and industrial rooftop, a market previously reserved for hot water or pv technologies.  In addition we designed an integrated roof rack mounting system which makes for easy and affordable rooftop installation by local contractors.  SopoFlare™ uses the proprietary features such as as our specialized tracker/controls, high speed manufacturing process and stow mode found in our award winning SopoNova™ 4.0 collector.   

With our staff still in recovery mode from the travel to Anaheim and busy with the follow up, we decided to go in a different direction with the launch of the World’s first portable MicroCSP system called the “SopoLite™”. 

Yesterday at the Maui Ocean Center, we launched “SopoLite™” a portable CSP system used for data gathering, portable renewable power or portable water desalination. 

Of the 56 VIPs invited, all but 2 made it. 1 from the local electric utility company and 1 was a legislator from the House of Representatives.  In addition we had a number of walk-ins creating a very diverse group of contractors, students, community leaders, business leaders and policy makers. 

The program included a blessing of the SopoLite by Kahu Uncle Charlie who’s ancestors once lived in a Hawaiian village where the Maui Ocean Center stands today.  Sopogy’s Hawaii Manager Jon Ishikawa, a very, brief talk about Sopogy and our vision by me (didn’t want to keep the guests from our power house speakers), an excellent speech by Lori Mellenbruch the director of Sales & Marketing at the Maui Ocean Center, Deidre Tegarden representing the County of Maui and an inspired speech by Congressman Neil Abercrombie.    

The SopoLite was originally designed to help us create a global solar map, identifying locations where CSP technologies to be deployed.  The SopoLite gathers real-time data and sends information back to our corporate offices in Honolulu, Hawaii.  There our engineers are assembling a massive model of solar information which will make it easier and faster for our customers to achieve their solar goals.  In some ways, the SopoLite was similar to the Google Van which is helping create Google Earth.

In the 4 year development of the SopoLite however we discovered the technology was able to be used as a portable renewable energy device.  In this application the SopoLite can be deployed in a location such as a war zone or area devastated by natural disaster to provide power or even desalinate water. This brings a fast and renewable solution to our energy problems today.

One of the highlights of the day was teaching the Youth Alliance how to create their own concentrating solar power systems to bake SopoSmores. 

 

The day wrapped up with Gloria from Energy Industries and Jon from Sopogy talking to the Youth Alliance about energy conservation and renewable energy.

 

Here are some additional pictures from the event:

Abercrombie_Youth_Alliance

Sopogy Maui Ocean Center Speakers

2 November 2009

Shifting the focus from utility-scale CSP projects, CSP Today talks to Darren Kimura, CEO of Sopogy, about the advantages of micro CSP.

By Rikki Stancich

Micro CSP technologies are leveraging the economics of proven large scale CSP for application in the distributed generation markets. The market potential is vast.

CSP Today talks to Darren Kimura about why CSP technology has the technological and economic edge over its PV competitors in this space.

CSP Today: Sopogy has developed a ‘micro’ CSP system. What are the advantages of going small?

Darren Kimura: We’ve taken the large-scale parabolic trough technology and reduced its size – we’ve changed the position of the receiver and reduced the size of the reflector frame, which in itself reduces manufacturing costs.

So, there is a new frame, tracker, algorithms and a different temperature. And rather than running off a steam turbine, we use an organic ranking cycle, or ORC.

The ORC win is that it doesn’t use steam, it uses the temperature difference between fluids in a closed loop. In other words, we don’t have the high water requirement of the large-scale desert projects that run off steam engines.

And because the ORC can continue to operate at lower temperatures (unlike a steam turbine, which shuts off if the steam temperature drops) there are much lower operating costs and maintenance costs involved.

The ORC could be operating at 10 percent of its operating efficiency and the engine would still continue to operate. In other words, it can operate in cloudier places than the large-scale desert systems.

CSP Today:  A system with a lower insolation requirement must be adaptable to a wider market than large-scale CSP. Can you expand on which markets you are targeting? 

Darren Kimura: ORCs are smaller, so rather than competing with the likes of Solel or Solar Millennium, we focus on the distributor-generator market. The units can be situated nearer to city grids, on buildings. We are targeting the 2-5 MW market.

While the current competitors are the PV market, the ORC system is 10-15 percent cheaper and it produces more energy. It has a tracker and storage built-in to the system and can be used for steam production or water heating.

The market we are focusing on is the commercial and industrial sector – the big energy users. This market represents some US$750 billion, but the current market penetration is less than 1 percent.

On a global scale, we are looking at the US and international high energy cost markets – and of course, markets where there is sun.

CSP Today: What are the drawbacks of smaller-scale ORC systems compared to steam systems?

Darren Kimura: It is twice the cost of steam (if the steam systems have perfect direct normal irradiation, or DNI). But then again, these systems need to have perfect DNI to run efficiently and there are only a handful of places around the globe that can offer those conditions. The big guys are searching for perfect DNI because turbines only work on or off – if a cloud passes overhead, the system shuts down.

Most cities are not in high DNI environments, which is why large CSP doesn’t get there.

CSP Today: What are the cost benefits of using an ORC system?

Darren Kimura: With large utility-scale projects, the minimum size needed to recoup the project costs is around 100 MW. With the Micro system, the reduced size means there is a fewer number of welds and steel components.

Because the system can operate at lower temperatures, we don’t need to employ highly skilled steam contractors. Instead, we use standard plumbing contractors, which reduces the costs three-fold.

Finally, we combine the energy output from the system. In the desert you create power and heat. Normally the heat gets dumped. We capture the heat and use it for something else. In other words, we provide the client with an added form of energy saving.

So, the lowered cost of the collector; modular technology; and energy streams, combine to equal a competitive solution.

Backstage at Green Aloha Concert prior to Honua Award

October 23, 2009

SOPOGY PRESS RELEASE – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Date: 10/23/09
Contact: Sopogy – Marketing and Public Relations Coordinator
media@sopogy.com
808-833-4747

SUBJECT: Darren T. Kimura, President and CEO of Sopogy and founder and Chairman of Energy Industries receives the 2009 Honua Award by the Blue Planet Foundation
Waikiki, HI — At the Waikiki Green Aloha Concert before an estimated crowd of 500, Sopogy founder, President, Chief Executive Officer and Energy Industries Founder and Chairman of the Board Darren T. Kimura has just been awarded the Honua Award by the Blue Planet Foundation.

Over his 17 year career Darren’s companies have helped move Hawaii towards a clean energy future. Energy Industries has introduced and installed numerous clean energy technologies saving kilowatt hours and reducing PCBs and Mercury through recycling programs. Sopogy is developing the next generation of high efficiency solar panels and energy storage technologies for Hawaii and the World. Keahole Solar Power developed and constructed a 2 megawatt solar thermal project and is developing an additional 30 megawatts of fossil fuel free power. Together his companies employ and support hundreds of green collar jobs and kept over $500 million in Hawaii’s local economy through energy savings. In addition his work has off-set over 2 million metric tons of CO2 emissions which is the equivalent of reducing 27,000 tankers of gasoline or eliminating the consumption of 4.6 million barrels of oil.

“This Award is symbolic of the opportunities that exist here in Hawaii” said Darren T. Kimura. “We’ve accomplished a lot over the past 17 years but we’ve still got so much more to do and we’re running out of time. I’m happy to be standing shoulder to shoulder with you all in the fight against Global Warming as we struggle to save our planet and our species.”

The Honua (“Earth”) Award is given annually to recognize individuals or organizations who have made significant contributions to moving Hawaii along the path towards a clean sustainable energy future. Their achievements affecting our energy future could be economic, social/cultural, environmental, or some combination. The first Honua Award was presented in 2008 to Maurice Kaya, the former Hawaii state energy office administrator.

The selection committee for the Honua Award is the Blue Planet Foundation Board of Directors:
· Henk Rogers, software entrepreneur and founder of the Blue Planet Foundation;
· Akemi Rogers, owner of Fishcake and co-founder of Blue Lava Technologies;
· Ben Cayetano, former Governor of the State of Hawai„i;
· Prof. Peter Crouch, Dean of the College of Engineering at UH Manoa;
· Stanley Hong, Esq., an attorney and leader in business, civic and community affairs;
· Elizabeth Kapu’uwailani Lindsey, Ph.D., an award-winning filmmaker and anthropologist;
· Bob Lloyd, Chairman of the V Foundation for Cancer Research;
· David Williams, retired Senior Vice President of the Whirlpool Corporation; and
· Prof. Maxine Burkett, Director of the Center for Island Climate Adaptation and Policy.

ABOUT BLUE PLANET FOUNDATION
Blue Planet Foundation is a local non-profit committed to ending the use of carbon based fuels on Earth by making Hawaii a global leader for energy independence within a decade. For more information on Blue Planet Foundation and Hawai‘i Home Energy Makeover, visit www.blueplanetfoundation.org.

ABOUT SOPOGY
Sopogy specializes in MicroCSP solar technologies that bring the economics of large solar energy systems to the industrial, commercial and utility sectors in a smaller, robust and more cost effective package. Sopogy’s goals include to create solar solutions that improve the quality of life for all human kind and to bring order and simplicity to the chaos which is the current solar power business. Please visit www.sopogy.com for more information.

ABOUT ENERGY INDUSTRIES CORPORATION
Energy Industries Corporation, founded in 1994, is a national energy services company that specializes in energy-efficiency and photovoltaic systems for commercial, industrial and institutional buildings. The company provides to its customers turnkey energy strategic plans that combine energy assessments, design, engineering, installation, service / maintenance, rebate acquisition and energy financing. Based in Honolulu, Hawaii, the company maintains offices throughout the West Coast and offers services throughout the country. In 2006 the company was awarded Hawaiian Electric Company’s Inaugural “Trade Ally of the Year” and in 2007 the company was awarded “Technology Company of the Year” by Pacific Technology Foundation. For more information, visit www.energy-industries.com

Hope at Copenhagen = Hopenhagen the United Nations effort to raise awareness and push for an effective global climate plan. I’m requesting that you support this by joining me in signing the petition online at www.hopenhagen.org or by clicking on the banner below. Thanks – DTK

Darren T. Kimura and Doug Carlson on Energy Futures at Hawaii Public Radio

Darren T. Kimura before the Energy Futures Show, HPR