When you think of residential solar, you probably think of solar installations that are tied to the grid. These installations have many benefits. You can rely on the grid when you need to, you don’t need to store all the energy you generate in batteries, and you can sell energy back to utilities. But on-grid solar isn’t for everyone, and our future surely requires some mix of on- and off-grid technology.  

To learn about the use case and business opportunity of distributed off-grid solar, I sat down with the founders of two growing, off-grid solar companies. Arnold Leitner is the CEO of YouSolar, and Sean Luangrath is the CEO of Inergy Solar. Both Arnold and Sean have been in the industry for a long time and helped clarify why off-grid solar matters, who it's for, where the industry is, and where its likely to go. Their two companies offer really different products and understanding their differences really helped me comprehend some of the different applications for off-grid solar. And, as it happens, YouSolar is actually in the final stretch of an equity crowdfunding campaign on StartEngine, which you might want to check out if you really like what you hear. 

Ok, here we go!

In today’s episode, we cover:

• [3:02] Arnold’s CEO journey
• [6:11] Sean’s CEO journey
• [9:11] Inergy’s product lineup & target customers
• [11:32] The power of a 26-pound electricity system
• [13:01] YouSolar’s progress toward commercialization
• [13:53] YouSolar’s current & future products
• [17:59] YouSolar’s history
• [18:53] The importance of off-grid solar
• [25:11] The difference between YouSolar, Inergy & big solar companies
• [29:36] The future of balancing on-grid & off-grid power
• [36:46] Key barriers to scaling
• [40:52] Experiences with crowdfunding
• [45:45] ​​How listeners learn more about distributed off-grid solar

Resources Mentioned

• YouSolar
• Inergy Solar
• StartEngine: YouSolar Crowdfunding Campaign
• NREL: Fuel from the Sky Study

Connect with Arnold Leitner & Sean Luangrath

• Connect with Arnold on LinkedIn
• Connect with Sean on LinkedIn

Connect with Jason Rissman

• On LinkedIn
• On Twitter

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