Company on road to harnessing power of sun for truckers

ENow Inc. CEO Jeff Flath was introduced to solar technology while working at the Cooley Group, the Pawtucket manufacturer of engineered fabrics, which was trying to incorporate photovoltaic cells into its billboards and roof membranes in the early 2000s. After Flath was replaced as Cooley Group president last year, he saw a new opportunity for solar power on the flat, sun-facing tops of tractor trailers and founded eNow. The Providence startup has designed solar systems that allow trucks to run their lights, air conditioners and radios without having to keep their diesel engines idling, using fuel and generating emissions.
Last month, eNow secured a $1 million loan guarantee from the state’s Job Creation Guaranty Program, the first and only loan guarantee under the program since the collapse of its first guarantee, to 38 Studios LLC, to begin scaling up a Rhode Island manufacturing facility.

PBN: Can you describe the system you are working on?
FLATH: We have developed our own [photo-voltaic] modules for the transportation industry. In short, we manufacture a system, solar is only part of the system, that turns a semi-truck trailer or a box-truck box into a power supply. In addition to producing energy from solar, we are able to capture energy if the truck is plugged in at night and we can take power from the alternator if need be constant if you go a number of days without sunshine, then the battery is still being charged. And in the future, we are working with companies on ways to take power from regenerative-break systems and engine-exhaust recovery systems that are stored in the battery-management system that we have developed with the solar panels. Power that is generated is used for a variety of truck-trailer functions, such as the cab itself, for no-idle, in-cab [heating ventilation and air-conditioning] systems. When a truck is sitting along the road, they do not have to run the engine for HVAC, communications or entertainment functions for the driver. We can provide power for electric gate- lift systems and safety-light applications.

PBN: Since you are designing and assembling the system, but not producing the batteries, solar cells or different parts of the system, what prevents a company that does make them from developing their own system?
FLATH: The intellectual property and patents pending are off of the specific design of the [photo-voltaic] modules. These panels have not been developed in the past and no one is developing them and we feel that with the patent that we have in process that it will protect [against] anyone copying what we are doing. It is a product specifically for the transportation environment. It is rugged; you deal with vibration issues; you deal with chemicals that are sprayed on the road in the winter causing corrosion effects. You have to be aware of safety provisions if a vehicle is in an accident and make sure that systems are shut down. constant Our intellectual property is based around solving those issues.

PBN: Where are you in the process of scaling up your manufacturing operation?
FLATH: We are in the process of evaluating spaces here in Rhode Island and should be able to be making a decision very shortly on where we will locate. We will probably start off with 5,000 to 7,500 square feet and based off our projections could be moving in the future to something around 40,000 to 50,000 square feet. We are starting with six employees. That will probably go to 12 people and then grow from there.

PBN: What made the Rhode Island Job Creation Guaranty Program attractive as a financing source and can you describe the deal?
FLATH: It was nondiluted to the shareholders and the parties who put equity in. That is the reason we approached them. ENow matched 100 percent of the loan guarantee in our own equity and that makes it different from other [applicants]. The only way you really can do a startup, because banks aren’t interested in doing startups, is to go though similar programs to the Rhode Island job-guarantee program. This was one of the less-expensive ways of us not getting diluted. PBN: Is the market for your system really as large as all the trucks on the highway?
FLATH: When you think about efficiency, looking at how to operate a truck more efficiently is similar to how you operate a building more efficiently. First you go in and make sure the windows don’t leak, you make sure the air-conditioning system works well and heating works well. In transportation, a lot of energy is wasted off of how an engine works and that is why you see exhaust, when you break you are losing energy. As much as you can take that wasted energy and turn it back into energy, store it, and use it to offset what that engine has to do, the more fuel savings you have. More and more of your manufacturers will look to see how they can integrate electric-drive systems and electric operations in reducing the amount of engine they have to put into a truck. If we can produce power through electricity, maybe instead of having a 300 horsepower diesel engine, maybe they only need 230 horsepower because they are getting power from other sources.

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PBN: How about passenger cars?
FLATH: Our system has been built on using as much square feet as possible. Just because there are not as much square feet on top of a car makes it difficult to produce enough power to offset engine load. We are strictly concentrating on bigger vehicles. Even though there are not as many trucks on the road as cars, trucks use more fuel than cars and produce more greenhouse gas emissions. •

INTERVIEW
Jeff Flath
Position: President and CEO of eNow Inc.
Background: An Ohio native who moved to Rhode Island in 1985, Flath worked for the Cooley Group in Pawtucket for 13 years, seven of them as president of the engineered-fabric company from 2004 to 2011. After his departure from Cooley, Flath founded eNow Inc., a Providence startup that designs and creates solar-power systems for trucks.
Education: High school graduate, plus several years of college at Albion College in Albion, Mich., as well as a number of executive-management programs
First job: Cutting grass at a church camp
Residence: Warwick
Age: 58

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