Iowa company unrolls solar power to world

Thu August 21 2003
Posted Aug 21, 2003
1,753

Design seminar in France to explore uses for panels. By DAVID ELBERT Register Business Editor 08/20/2003 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [note the comments regarding RAGBRAI and the uses of solar panels....] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- An international team of design experts is meeting at a country estate in the hills of Charente, France, this week to find uses for flexible solar panels made by an Iowa company. The PowerFilm panels the designers are using for inspiration are made by Iowa Thin Film Technologies Inc. of Boone. The panels are the brainchild of two former 3M scientists, Frank Jeffrey and Derrick Grimmer, who have been developing their unusual energy source in Iowa with help from Iowa State University since 1988. Designer Toshiyuki Kita of Japan is leading the France seminar, which is aimed at finding ways to incorporate solar power into everyday products. The timing of the meeting could not be better from the Iowa company's perspective. The power blackout in New York and other eastern cities last week has focused new attention on alternative, personal-power sources. Also, solar panels made by Iowa Thin Film came off an unusual real-world test last month by a RAGBRAI team, which used them to power a CD player, lights and a cell phone on the across-Iowa bicycle ride. "The panels worked flawlessly on the ride," wrote Scott Sumpter in a report to a Web site maintained by BikeIowa. Sumpter used two prototype panels that were about 6 feet long and laid flat on a trailer pulled by a bicyclist. The panels drew power from the sun to recharge a battery that was used to power a stereo and lights. A smaller panel was used to power a cell phone. Those are the types of everyday uses the international design team will consider this week in France. The seminar is one in a series of one-week workshops sponsored by Centre International de Recherche et d'Education Culturelle et Agricole, a joint effort of German and French museums. Centre International has sponsored interdisciplinary summer workshops for seven years at Domaine de Boisbuchet, a French estate. Twenty designers from Europe, North America and Asia are attending the France meeting led by Kita, 61, whose 1980 "Wink" chair, a cartoonish-looking lounger, won international acclaim. Kita's interest in renewable energy was the inspiration for the seminar, said Silvia Gross, spokeswoman for Vitra Design Museum in Berlin, one of the sponsors of Centre International. The Iowa company's participation, she said, is a pleasant coincidence. Gross, who is German, had originally intended to have seminar participants work with flexible solar cells manufactured by a Swiss company. The company is in a French-speaking part of Switzerland, she said. "As my French is pretty bad, I postponed writing a letter to them," Gross said. Then, she said, "I saw a very short notice in a German design magazine about Iowa Thin Film. My English is bad as well, but I prefer it to French, so I visited their Web site and made contact by using the online form." Within minutes, Michael Coon, Iowa Thin Film chief operating officer, telephoned her. "He was talking German without an accent," and that sealed the deal for the Iowa company, Gross said. Coon is at Boisbuchet to help the designers work through possibilities for new products. Iowa Thin Film already has PowerFilm products designed to run cell phones, hand-held computers and personal stereos as well as many more uses on the drawing board. The exciting thing about the meeting in France, Coon said, will be getting ideas from designers from all over the world. The functionality of PowerFilm is obvious to most people who see the product for the first time, he said. Indeed, the on-site electrician at Boisbuchet got excited and started asking questions about PowerFilm as soon as the sponsors announced the topic, Coon said.