SunbitsSass Peress – CEO of ICP Solar – Solar Blog

To all the dads out there, make it your Kids’ Day. That’s what will give you the happiest father’s day of all time…

MIT has discovered a way to print solar cells on paper. This is not knew (printing on flexible substrate) what is new is the use of paper as a substrate.

Now while the efficiency of the cells is now maxed out at 2% it simply reminds me that while much of the world is focused on rooftops, there are so many other uses for power yet unexplored because there is no source that this kind of revolutionary cell needs revolutionary thinking. You won’t power a roof for a home much with that type of efficiency, yet we need to use the imagination to find applications for such novel ways of creating power. The microchip industry got out of the box to create multitude new uses when the cost of making them went way down. That’s what happens with power too.

sass

I have learned that its in the fighting of reality that we find suffering. Business can be painful, yet to make you suffer is to lose a grip on how you can truly make it great. What we have been through in the past year is all for a great reason which the market is about to discover. No prediction except that, as always, I will surprise… Sass

I have not blogged for a while due to the emphasis on other things for the moment. However expect me to come back with a vengeance of new blog topics in early May.

Sass

UPG and ICP Solar have united to bring the electrical and consumer goods industry the best of both worlds. ICP’s licensed solar chargers, under Energizer brand, will now be offered to over 2000 dealers of UPG’s. UPG’s new Energizer inverters and powerboxes will be included in ICP Solar power kits for its customers. UPG is one of the premier third-party logistics companies in the USA and their knowledge of batteries and battery related systems is simply going to further enhance our position. Brands, innovation, execution, range.

With two parties bringing complementary core competencies and assets to the party, it is bound to enhance both companies’ customer confidence, and risk-management. Shareholders of both seem to be pleased yesterday…

Sass

In December 2002 I visited a company called Konarka, a young technology startup in Lowell, Mass. At that time I believed it to be disruptive. OK, so it took a few years to come to market, yet my patience, and belief in their chairman Howard Berke have been validated. So this morning when we announced the very first solar charger in the world using their organic solar cell technology, it feels amazing. Its fun to change the rules of the game, and be the one to do it. So now everyone is playing catchup again…and we launch a product today at half the market price of competition in the same power range, yet without the flexibility and brand of Coleman(R) behind us and a great innovative package which is similar to what ICP Solar has done in the past with previous flexible products.

Availability is Q4 yet we will start pre-orders on our website much sooner than that…so get ready to rumble in the camping market for portable solar chargers! See full press release below:

ICP Solar to Launch New Products at Outdoor Retailer Show
Disruptive Technology to Boost Coleman Charger Portfolio

ICP Solar Technologies Inc. (OTCBB: ICPR.OB, FRANKFURT: K1U.F), a developer and marketer of innovative, proprietary, next-generation solar panels and products, today announced several of the Company’s products will be on display at the Outdoor Retailer Summer Market July 21-24 in Salt Lake City, Utah. The Outdoor Retailer Summer Market is billed as the world’s largest outdoor sports industry gathering, bringing retailers and media together with over 1,000 brands in the business of producing and selling the active outdoor lifestyle. ICP Solar’s Coleman®-branded solar chargers and accessories will be on display at Coleman booth #36104.

One of the revolutionary products to be highlighted will be a solar charger that ICP Solar has developed in conjunction with Konarka Technologies. Konarka is a leader in solar plastic films that convert light into energy, utilizing organic photovoltaic (OPV) technology as a source of renewable power. Konarka’s Power Plastic® is lightweight, flexible, scalable and adaptable for use in a variety of commercial and consumer applications. ICP Solar and Konarka have designed a new line of solar chargers utilizing Konarka’s Power Plastic® solar cells, integrated under ICP Solar’s specifications. The units are to be sold in North America under the Coleman® brand and should be available in the fourth quarter of 2009 via the internet sites of a number of major retailers along with www.colemansolar.com.

“This relationship with Konarka is one more example of ICP Solar expanding its global reach with new, innovative technologies and partnerships to better position the company for sustained growth and profitability,” said Sass Peress, Chairman and CEO of ICP Solar. “We expect thousands of visitors to be at the Outdoor Retailer show this week and can think of no more appropriate venue to showcase these solar chargers, marketed under the respected Coleman® brand name. Given the uniqueness of Konarka’s OPV applications, we look forward to a long and beneficial relationship and the opportunity to offer additional low-cost, cutting edge solar solutions in the years to come.”

ICP Solar launched a new ecommerce portal today at www.sunsei.eu .

In addition to our current Sunsei(R) website, this new site will provide multi-lingual availability to all of our Sunsei(R) branded products to our European consumer base. As with the North American version of the site, it is not meant to compete with our major etailers (whose visits dwarf ours by hundreds of multiples). Rather it gives us direct feedback with consumers about the verbiage (testing webpage formats), the story behind the brand, and direct response about new products and any potential product issues which may arise are dealt with much faster than anyone else in the market. The advantages to our etailer partners far outweigh any potential lost sales because of the few thousand visitors we have each month.

The availability of this site will also give us much better direct contact with European consumers and their requirements which do differ from North Americans in subtle yet important ways. This direct contact will help us hone our new product offerings to the localized (yet globalized backbone) nature of our products. It is yet another step in the development of our group of brands into world players in the solar consumer market.

Considering that our corporate sales have basically been flat (or slightly less) than last year in an economy that stinks, our margins are growing, our expenses are diving…and we’ve just added the Energizer(R) brand, will add new products this week under Coleman(R) and Sunsei(R) brands…and one more big product range announcement which will be put our shortly….I think you can all see where this is going…. …

Sass

You might have already read about the amazing deal that ICP Solar inked with Energizer, yet in case you haven’t here is the executive summary:

For an initial period of 3 years, with extensions on certain conditions for both parties, ICP Solar will market solar charging solutions under the Energizer brand, and this on a global basis. When we were first approached by Energizer, we found it odd that they would look to our little company as a potential suitor, when they were “interviewing” dozens of others, some billion dollar corporations. And yet we soon grew to understand that their philosophy of what they wanted to bring to market was the missing link in the solar world. So after 15 months of meetings, talks and legal mumbo jumbo, we inked a deal two weeks ago.

So what does this mean for the marketplace? Well in a nutshell, its going to blow out of the water any other solar program on earth today. I won’t give you (or our competition) any clues about what this is going to mean. You wouldn’t expect this program to be the lowest cost on earth, and it shouldn’t if its going to provide customers with superior solutions to some of the farces out there in the solar world. This is going to be about completing the circle and helping consumers feel “whole” about their solar power purchase. It will look and feel very different from our other branded programs (Coleman or Sunsei). This doesn’t mean that those other programs don’t have their places. In fact, we’ll be adding to the mass appeal of the Coleman program and the niche/leisure targeting of Sunsei in the coming weeks with new product intros at quite a rapid pace. Its just that the Energizer program will bring a very different approach which fits its brand image.

In the coming weeks we’ll be announcing new products and programs to our retail partners for end 2009 and beginning 2010 launch (depending on their cycles). OK, so maybe I was a bit premature when in 2001 I announced “the best is yet to come”. Frankly I was not ready at that time in my own personal and professional development, although ICP clearly was. However, this time I think I got it right. By sharing, we grow. By growing, we permit those around us to do the same.

This is going to be a wonderful experience to share with the world, and I can’t wait…

Sass

Another example of new solar technology applications that we can count on in the future. Click here..
Sass

The biggest piece of ice to break off the arctic shelf is now reality. The trend is scary and won’t stop until we reverse the effects on our environment. Imagine an arctic without ice…it will change you life in ways we still don’t understand.
Sass