#80 - Solar Powered Lighting

David Gershaw is the Chief Innovation Officer at Light Efficient Design, and he joined Greg and Mike from his booth at Lightfair International.While LED’s story of Solar-powered exterior lighting is told from the show Philadelphia it starts in Africa six years ago where they were partnered to light miles of roads in Tanzania with off-grid solar-powered lamps. What started with three components, one being a buried car battery, is now an all-in-one fixture that can be placed virtually anywhere. David’s enthusiasm for the tech that’s inside his company's solar powered option is infectious. As part of the conversation Michael leads the group in digging into some atypical energy efficiency math for fixtures that hybridize solar and grid-sourced power, this leads to some speculation on a whole new kind of rebate program that could arise from these calculations. As the episode closes, the discussion shifts toward Dave’s role as an innovator and the strange and exciting technology that is emerging in the near future.