We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful William Guiney. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with William below.

Hi William, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

I have been in the Solar Energy industry for more than 40-years for Solar PV and Solar Thermal. I preferred Solar Thermal because it involved many mechanical systems and applications. PV was just electricity nothing exciting about that.

Solar Thermal was typically used for hot water, swimming pools in the commercial and residential sectors generating temperatures form 80F to 160F. There were very few solutions for Industrial Process Heat for higher temperature applications requiring 180F to 400F.

I was offered the opportunity to commercialize an advanced Solar Thermal technology to generate high temperatures for Process Heat and Steam, opening solutions for the industrial sector, evaporation, desalination, and solar cooling.

I saw it as a challenge and an opportunity to grow the use of Solar Thermal in a world dominated by PV. I know if we are truly serious about climate change we need to address and reduce the 40% of GHG emissions from buildings. PV certainly will provide power and electricity but not generate the process heat and steam required by industry.

William, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I have been in the solar energy business for more than 40 years. I’ve done just about everything in the industry; distribution, manufacturing, education and training, licensed contractor and a hand at policy and programs. My partner, Karen O’Brien and I start at Arctic solar in 2013. At the time I was the program manager and director of the solar energy business for Johnson Controls in Milwaukee WI. The opportunity to license the XCPC, a high temperature solar thermal technology capable of generating temperatures up to 400 degrees Fahrenheit was offered to me by the inventor who was a close friend. I left Johnson Controls and move to Jacksonville FL to manufacture this new advanced technology. Karen and I both recognized this technology was a real game changer for the solar heating industry. In the past we were limited to solar water heating for homes and commercial businesses and swimming pool heating. High temperature applications including Process Heat, Steam and Solar Cooling finally we’re within reach with this new technology. our advantage is our technology is non tracking and collects both Direct and Diffuse solar radiation. The non-tracking, concentrating design means there’s virtually no O&M and it is easy to install and maintain. The technology is cost effective and has significant greenhouse gas and carbon reduction capabilities.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

For the most part the company has been self-funded. We did raise $75,000 from friends and family and we’ve bootstrapped the operation since 2014. We’re currently seeking investors to allow us to grow the company. We were reluctant to take other people’s money until we were sure we’re going to be sustainable. Raising capital has by far been our biggest challenge And frustration. Florida is not exactly an energy state we should have gone into developing an app or involved in healthcare which typically succeeds in raising capital in Florida. We have worked with some accelerators and put together an investor deck to raise the capital for our go to market strategy, higher engineering, sales and marketing staff.

Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?

I met my partner Karen more than 25-years ago when we both worked for a solar manufacturing company in Green Cove Springs, Florida. When I was managing the solar business for Johnson Controls I did not want to do business with the company in Florida because I didn’t like their management. I actually ignored the company every time they reached out to try to capture some of our business. One day while sitting at my desk I got a phone call picked it up and recognized Karen’s voice. She asked me why I didn’t do business with them and I told her straight out because of their management. She said give me a shot at earning your business so I told her to send me an unsolicited proposal with pricing and I’ll give it consideration. Because of my position I had a fiduciary responsibility to our customers and was surprised that she quoted me a lower price than what I had been paying other vendors so, we started doing business again. She heard about my opportunity to manufacture the new technology she told me if I would do it in Florida she would be my partner and match me dollar for dollar. How could I refuse?

Contact Info:

• Website: www.articsolar.com
• Instagram: NA
• Facebook: Artic Solar
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/william-guiney-581a086
• Twitter: Artic Solar
• Youtube: Artic Solar
• Yelp: NA
• Other: Artic Solar Overview Spanish – https://youtu.be/XP5yNXcMZgI Artic Solar Steam Engine Feb10 Demo – https://youtu.be/3fgqO5gosDI Solar Steam on a cloudy day – https://youtu.be/arECivoMYRk Four Fathers – https://youtu.be/rgMBnooJGUk Artic Solar Industrial process Heat Web video – https://youtu.be/OoeWSSJwOdI Artic Solar Test Stand – https://youtu.be/ikSzaxX5QEk American Made Desalination video – https://youtu.be/UJxB2lgovZw American Made EV Tube video- https://youtu.be/iBCLCTxEwNY Guiney Buzz TV interview – https://youtu.be/8sFsd1tKY5A Solar Polar video – https://youtu.be/uRd2RQJ0YVU

Image Credits
All are my pictures