ASPECTSOLAR EQUIPS SKIING EVEREST EXPEDITION

MAROLT BROTHERS USE SOLAR POWER TO FEND OFF FROSTBITE, DOCUMENT JOURNEY

LAFAYETTE, Colorado, December 30, 2013

Portable solar power innovator AspectSolar is pleased to announce their sponsorship of Mike and Steve Marolt, the 8000m (8K) descent skiers behind the 2009 documentary Skiing Everest. After a tour of festivals, ESPN bought the film in 2011 for a series of primetime broadcasts. The brothers, their friend Jim Gile, and Ski Channel owner Steve Bellamy are gearing up for the follow-up series, Beyond Skiing Everest. To film their expeditions, the Skiing Everest team relies on the best equipment available for their movie, and for their survival. Naturally, the powerful lightweight batteries and portable solar panels of AspectSolar were the perfect fit.

For their new documentary, the Marolt brothers and Gile aim to show the challenge and beauty found in some of the world’s lesser-known peaks. Despite the commercialization of Everest and other famous mountains, a sometimes more enjoyable experience can be found on summits with fewer expeditions. For their goal in Beyond Skiing Everest, the Marolt brothers want as few people as possible on the mountain. They are attempting to be the first crew to ski down from a 7K+ summit in winter. They’ve spent the last few years preparing for their January 2014 expedition to Muztagh Ata, a mountain in China along the Tibetan Plateau.

With temperatures plummeting below -50°F in the winter, Mike searched for the most reliable heated in-soles and the best portable batteries to power them with. These are the “golden gadgets” – gear that puts the expedition’s lofty goals safely within their reach. Along with powering their film equipment, an electrical source is needed to recharge the heated in-soles and fend off frostbite. AspectSolar is sponsoring the crew with two each of the EnergyBar 250 and EP-55 solar panels, all made with the same technology as their CES Innovation Award-winning SunSocket Solar Generator. Marolt’s previous experience with solar power on an expedition involved heavy, cumbersome solar panels and inefficient car batteries.

“It will completely revolutionize expeditions,” Mike says of AspectSolar’s products, engineered in Singapore. “Outside of technical gear, it is the coolest gadget we’ve ever come across. Our last batteries took two or three days to charge, and they lasted a fraction of the time.” The crew was enthusiastic about the potential of their new gear and what it meant for mountaineering. “This is the first device with the potential to take a power source to higher camps. That’s unheard of.”

If the Marolt expedition successfully manages to ski down from Muztagh Ata, not only will it be the world’s first ski descent from a 7K+ peak in winter, it will also be the first winter ascent of the mountain. Though famed for being an “easy” 7K, the brutal winter temperatures of Muztagh Ata make it dangerous for the inexperienced. Beyond Skiing Everest will open the door to winter ascents and ski descents, and AspectSolar’s technology will make the film possible and the journey safer thanks to award-winning, portable solar power.

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Media              Gerry Demple

Contact:           Vice President of Operations

                        1.877.717.7778

                        gdemple@aspectsolar.com

The Soft Costs of Residential Solar Power

Love the sun? Then it would only make sense that you would also embrace residential solar power and get photovoltaic (PV) cells installed in your yard or on your roof. Right? Well, maybe…

In the past few years, the hardware costs of solar panels have dropped immensely. Much of the technology now costs consumers 60% less than it did three years ago. Very few costs change at that rate. Gas can change 60% in three years, but in the opposite direction. So if it’s not the hardware that’s daunting, what’s keeping the price tag high on residential solar power?

Soft costs aren’t declining anywhere near as fast as the hardware. Permit fees, taxes, indirect costs, marketing, installation, and supply chain costs now make up most of the price of solar power. At a whopping 64%, it’s easy to see how these ‘small’ fees add up. The Department of Energy is working to bring these costs down with their SunShot Incubator program for innovation, but the going is slow. By 2020, their goal is for residential solar power to cost 75% less than it did in 2010.

You don’t have to wait that long for some level of renewable energy in your home. AspectSolar products are a fraction of the cost of getting professionally installed PV panels in your home. It may not power a house (unless you’re super frugal with electricity), but the EnergyBar can power your fun outside of one. While you’re waiting for those costs to plummet, use our long-lasting LiFePO4 battery for your weekend. Charge it with the EP-55 solar panel in your backyard and use the EnergyBar to power hours of fun in the car. Or use it for more essential functions like powering flashlights, GPS units, or charging batteries for photography and film equipment.

Or, once prices drop a little, use the EnergyBar to charge your power tools and install solar panels for your home. It’s not like you’ll stop needing portable power once you have residential solar power.

Just 2 Weeks Until International CES!

The next two weeks are looking busy for AspectSolar! Our accessories and the new DUO-Flex solar USB charger make excellent gifts, so we’ll be busy for stocking stuffer season. Then it’s New Year’s Eve the week after and with that comes resolutions for being healthier, making the world a better place, and using more renewable solar power. And finally, we wrap it all up with a trip to Vegas for International CES to show off our award-winning SunSocket Solar Generator and other goodies.

(You remember that we won an award, right? It’s for Design & Engineering Innovation in Portable Power – a category shared with battery giant, Rayovac.)

We’re packing our bags and putting the finishing touches on our booth. Along with the essentials, we’re having trouble deciding which portable power solution to bring with us. Of course a couple EnergyBars are coming along for the ride – you don’t say no to power like that. That’ll help us stay powered while at the tradeshow and keep the email running in any sketchy coffee shops we can find. The DUO-Flex can sit on the dashboard of the rental car and keep our iPhones running for the same purpose (we get a lot of email here at AspectSolar). The EP-55 solar panels will look great on our hotel balcony for charging the EnergyBars. We could charge them from the wall sockets in the room, but we’re going to CES to show off anyway…

Of course the SunSocket Solar Generator is coming – that’s the main attraction. Hm. What a quandary. Sounds like we’ll have to bring them all and see what happens. If you’re going to CES, be sure to pack your renewable power along for the ride! We’d love to see you at our booth, and you can see the power of SUNTRAX™ sun-tracking technology in person.

Spoilers: It’s really cool. That’s why we were honored for innovation.

Right now, you can get free shipping and great deals on product packages. Celebrate with us, wherever you are.

The Moon Could Get Solar Power as Early as 2035

Imagine a solar panel array that could have constant, uninhibited exposure to sunlight. No clouds, no night. Japan’s Shimizu Corporation knows how to do it: put a belt of solar panels all the way across the equator of the moon. That’s 6800 miles of continuous photovoltaic cells, with a constant half of them exposed to the sun’s light.

While exposed to the sun, the cells would convert light into electricity and store it in broadcast facilities for later transmission. As the moon rotates, those broadcast facilities will face the Earth during the lunar night. Using a combination of microwave and laser transmissions, the solar belt will beam that energy to terrestrial facilities and later distribution to local power grids. Although around since before the Fukushima disaster, Shimizu’s proposal has gained momentum since the dangers of nuclear power in urban areas became clear. In the past few years, many of Japan’s nuclear reactors have been shut down and no reactors are currently in commission (although some are to be operating again soon). The pressing question is how to supply power for a country of millions in dense urban areas?

While obviously much safer for many reasons, the solar belt would require immense planning and would be the largest construction project ever undertaken by mankind – and on the Moon, no less. For the most part, robots would do the work. They would harvest the Moon’s natural resources to construct most equipment and maintain the array. Over the course of many years, several robots would harvest materials, produce photovoltaic cells, and move in a zigzag pattern to install the entire belt. Building those robots, planning the array, and exporting elements like Hydrogen to the Moon for construction would take years. Shimizu estimates that actual lunar construction could begin in 2035.

This is our favorite hypothetical use of solar technology this month, but it’ll be awhile before we see the energy this could deliver (almost four times the total current energy production of the United States). For now, we’ll charge our EnergyBars and take personal portable solar power with us. At least until the Moon can pick up the slack.

Make a Mobile Photography Studio

If you were building something and using power tools, running out of power would be no big deal. Frustrating, yes, but not a big issue. You’d plug in your batteries and let them charge overnight before coming back to it tomorrow. That’s not true of all battery-powered jobs though. If you’re shooting an outdoor wedding and the batteries die, that’s not just your day that’ll be ruined. Here are a few tips for staying fully charged during a shoot.

Charge Batteries Overnight

Get into the habit of plugging in the night for you have a gig. This will save you time and hassle later. There’s nothing quite like plugging in a few hours before leaving for the shoot and hoping that your battery can charge in that time. And while you’re at it, make sure there’s enough room on your camera for all of the pictures you’re about to shoot.

Keep Track of Your Charge

How many perfect shots have been missed because a battery died at the wrong moment? For long events, that battery will die – it’s up to you to control when. Check your battery levels occasionally and keep a schedule handy (if there is one for that event). Maybe change batteries in the downtime, even if you don’t quite need to yet. A little preparation and planning never hurt anyone.

Bring Portable Power

No more battery? No sweat! With your EnergyBar 250, you can charge a dead battery while you continue to shoot with the full one. Our battery weighs less than eight pounds and is less than two inches thick, which means it takes up less space than some of the other equipment you have to bring along. If it’s a weekend outdoor event, bring your EP-55 solar panels to charge the EnergyBar. You can never run out of power when you plug in to the sun.