SunSaluter

SunSaluter, Inc is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization^[1] headquartered in the United States with staff in India and deployments in 19 countries^[2]. It is also the name of the flagship technology which the organization developed.

The organization’s mission is to accelerate access to clean energy and water by matching partners with high impact solar tracking and water filtration technologies^[3].

SunSaluters optimizes the power output of solar photovoltaic panels using calibrated weight displacement (usually transfer of water from one container into another) to slowly rotate a solar panel to face the sun as it moves across the sky, substantially increasing the panel’s power output^[4]. SunSaluter received a patent for the technology for integrating water filtration into the passive solar rotation design^[5], although the design was open sourced in 2018, allowing anyone to build a SunSaluter^[6].

History

The technology piloted by SunSaluter was invented by Eden Full Goh in 2008^[7] and was initially under development by Full’s company, Roseicollis Technologies, based in Canada^[8]. In 2011, Full Goh received a Thiel Fellowship for US$100,000 to develop her passive solar tracker concept^[9][10], before continuing its development while an engineering student at Princeton University^[11].

SunSaluter was incorporated in 2013, and operates with a volunteer Board of Directors^[12] and small staff^[13]. By 2013, SunSaluter had pilot projects in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda, and sales in Malawi, India, Indonesia, Canada, the U.S. and Mexico^[14].

Technology

SunSaluter’s passive tracking system ensures the solar panel faces the sun throughout the day, without the use of electricity, permitting the panel to produce up to 30^[15] to 40^[16] percent^[17] more electricity than a fixed-mount panel. The process is also known as horizontal (azimuth) solar tracking^[18]. The slow flow of water through a filter into another container acts as a water clock roughly synchronized with the sun’s motion^[19]. This also creates the opportunity to add a water filter onto the water clock, resulting in clean water at the end of each day^[2]. SunSaluter’s integrated rotating axis and water filtration system is patented, though SunSaluter has encouraged partnerships to promote widest possible distribution of the technology^[20].

In 2018, SunSaluter announced that it would make the patented technology open-source, with the intent to "allow SunSaluter to impact not just thousands, but millions of people" and create opportunities for innovation on the design^[21].

Partners

While maintaining lean operations, SunSaluter's funding sources are diverse including prize competitions, corporate sponsorship, charitable gifts, and board fundraising. Notable awards include:

• The Thiel Foundation headed by Peter Thiel, which is funded Full Goh through the Thiel Fellowship. The fellowship totalled to $100,000 over two years.^[22]
• Scotia Bank, which awarded $10,000 for creation of the SunSaluter as its Ecoliving 2011 Student Leader Award.^[23]
• The Green Challenge, where the SunSaluter was the runner-up.^[24]
• Ashoka Youth Competition,^[25] co-sponsored by the Staples Foundation.
• Mashable's Startups for Good Challenge, winning $10,000, and a Social Good award from the UN Foundation.^[26]

References

External links

• SunSaluter page maintained by Roseicollis Technologies