The History of the Buckleys
What do race cars have to do with solar energy? As it turns out, more than one would think. Shawn Buckley, the president of Focused Sun and its founder, began designing race cars before he finished University. One might not know his Berkeley doctoral thesis, yet almost everybody should have seen it in action. His development of "ground effects" is today's standard for fast cornering of competitive race cars. Sponsored by Group Lotus (Wymondham, UK), his summa cum laude research led to Lotus winning the Formula One World Constructor’s Championship and American driver Mario Andretti winning the Formula One Drivers Championship. It comes as no surprise that Buckley founded three Silicon Valley companies selling advanced manufacturing equipment. He has worked with nearly a thousand factories, allowing him to understand manufacturing methods in use around the world.
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The family: Engineers to the bones Shawn's fascination for technology began in his childhood. This is a family of creative technologists. His grandfather, Willi, from Prussian military nobility began in a workshop school in the late 1800s. In 1900, he received his diploma in mechanical and electrical engineering from the University of Berlin (Charlottenburg), one of the best technical schools of its time. After helping to electrify Italy, Switzerland and Germany, he served in the military in World War I. After the war Willi came to the U.S. to seek his fortune. He worked as a designer of early washing machines, floor polishers, movie projectors and televisions. During WWII, he helped develop the Link Trainer used to train many American pilots. Willi could make anything. He built a Swiss-style restaurant in Staten Island, one of the first with air conditioning. Later, he built his own house in Sparta, NJ above Lake Mohawk. The house was in the Swiss tradition complete with rocks on the roof to hold down the shingles and balconies with ornate railings. The young Buckley brothers spent summers there, especially in Willi’s woodworking shop. Willi showed the boys how to use hand tools and power tools. But he was also a strong disciplinarian: miss-use those tools and get scolded.
Shawn’s father “Buck” grew up in upstate Boonville, NY near the Canadian border. In the 1930s he went to the University of Michigan, one of the best engineering schools of its day. He studied both mechanical and electrical engineering, but eventually settled on mechanical engineering getting his degree just prior to World War II. After the war Buck specialized in turbo machinery, especially gas turbines. At Battelle Institute (Columbus OH) and later at American Locomotive (Dunkirk NY), he managed a 30 man project to power locomotives with gas turbines that burned pulverized coal. After a stint in industrial equipment, he moved the family to Milford, CT to work on small gas turbines for AVCO Lycoming in nearby Stratford. Shawn's father was also an inventor. His work in locomotives resulted in two U.S. patents. Like grandfather Willi, he showed the boys how to make things and fix things. Shawn and his older brother Fred spent many a day in the basement workshop watching their father fix anything that was broken. This is an important lesson for a young engineer: if someone put it together, it can be taken apart. To the chagrin of their mother, dinner-table talk was not about literature or the arts; it was about technology and new inventions. The two older Buckley boys went to Pitt together, Fred specializing in electrical engineering and Shawn in mechanical engineering. They graduated the same year, Fred going to work for IBM and Shawn to graduate school at Purdue.
The Buckley boys from left to right are Jerry, Fred, Ed and Shawn. All have been graduated in various engineering disciplines: Jerry (BSCS, Bridgeport), Fred (BSEE, Pitt; MSEE, Syracuse), Ed (BSEE, Berkeley), Shawn (BSME, Pitt; MSME, Purdue; PhD ME, Berkeley), Together the family has over 50 issued patents.
The Buckley boys from left to right are Jerry, Fred, Ed and Shawn. All have been graduated in various engineering disciplines: Jerry (BSCS, Bridgeport), Fred (BSEE, Pitt; MSEE, Syracuse), Ed (BSEE, Berkeley), Shawn (BSME, Pitt; MSME, Purdue; PhD ME, Berkeley), Together the family has over 50 issued patents.
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Caring for the future: Focusing on the Sun At MIT, Shawn taught in the Mechanical Engineering Department (specialized in solar energy) and in MIT's Sloan School of Mangement. Jay Forrester, a management professor whose book “Limits to Growth” was an early analysis of global growth, was an important inspiration for him. Shawn and Jay team-taught a class in system dynamics at the Sloan School. After class they would discuss how one could engineer a social explosion -- twenty years before Google and Facebook. During the same time, Shawn led the development of the MIT solar module. His group pioneered sandwich fabricated solar panels that could be made cheaply in local factories. Buckley left MIT to help found the Chevron subsidiary, Hydro Sun, that licensed his MIT-developed technology. Chevron spent two years and $10 MM developing the MIT panel, but abandoned it when the political climate for renewables changed with Reagan’s election in the 1980s. Buckley currently holds 26 U.S. patents including six on solar energy.
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Our Team
If we can't afford to do it right the first time; we can't afford to do it right a second time. -Shawn Buckley
Shawn Buckley
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Rene Francis
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Join the Team
Sales Team Member Descrtiption
A key part of a solar factory is its salesmen. See “Typical Teams.pdf” under Factory, New Businesses. Once your local factory has been established, your duties are to sell Focused Sun products. You’ll work with other factory team members to make your factory a success.
Job Location: TBD
Job Duties:
1. Find Team Members: Each factory has between 5 and 10 members. Some of those members will want to sell solar modules, others will want to make them and others will want to install them. You can recruit the other members yourself or we can use our network to help you find others near you.
2. Set up Partnership: After you have your team together, you need to set up an LLC partnership. See Business Structure.pdf
A key part of a solar factory is its salesmen. See “Typical Teams.pdf” under Factory, New Businesses. Once your local factory has been established, your duties are to sell Focused Sun products. You’ll work with other factory team members to make your factory a success.
Job Location: TBD
Job Duties:
1. Find Team Members: Each factory has between 5 and 10 members. Some of those members will want to sell solar modules, others will want to make them and others will want to install them. You can recruit the other members yourself or we can use our network to help you find others near you.
2. Set up Partnership: After you have your team together, you need to set up an LLC partnership. See Business Structure.pdf
Instillations Team Member
An Installer installs FourFold solar modules on customer homes and businesses. See “Typical Teams.pdf” under Factory, New Businesses. Once your local factory has been established, your duties are to install Focused Sun products. You’ll work with other factory team members to make your factory a success.
Job Location: TBD
Job Duties:
1. Find Team Members: Each factory has between 5 and 10 members. Some of those members will want to sell solar modules, others will want to make them and others will want to install them.
2. You can recruit the other members yourself or we can use our network to help you find others near you. Set up Partnership: After you have your team together, you need to set up an LLC partnership. Business Structure.PDF.
An Installer installs FourFold solar modules on customer homes and businesses. See “Typical Teams.pdf” under Factory, New Businesses. Once your local factory has been established, your duties are to install Focused Sun products. You’ll work with other factory team members to make your factory a success.
Job Location: TBD
Job Duties:
1. Find Team Members: Each factory has between 5 and 10 members. Some of those members will want to sell solar modules, others will want to make them and others will want to install them.
2. You can recruit the other members yourself or we can use our network to help you find others near you. Set up Partnership: After you have your team together, you need to set up an LLC partnership. Business Structure.PDF.
Public Relations Team Member
International P.R. Team
A Publicist Partner gets publicity for our company by getting news in your local media. The news can be any media: newspaper, magazine, radio or TV. Publicist Partners are part of our program to put solar factories into small towns. You can get referral fees for getting people to donate or for recruiting other Publicist Partners.
After the end of January, we’ll see how well you've done in your hometown. The top 10 Publicist Partners will be in the running for a factory in your hometown. If you've done well in publicizing our modules and factory or in getting contributions, we’ll help the winners find funding to build a solar factory in your hometown. Since each state has different laws, after January we will need to have a contract that will satisfy local jurisdictions. Our long term goal is for you to build a sustainable business in your hometown. As a Publicity Partner we want you personally to be the interface between us and your hometown. Others can help but we want you involved and in charge.
Job Location: Your Hometown
Job Duties:
1. College Student: We need to have people that can communicate with us about business in their hometown.
2. Live there: To be our Publicist Partner, you must have been raised in your hometown. We want local people who know how their hometown works and who to talk to. Note that this is NOT an exclusive territory. Others may want to be our Publicist Partner in your hometown too, especially if its a big town. We want you to be personally involved in marketing our products in the future; you will have to set up an organization that can help your hometown factory succeed.
3. Publication: For our solar products to be a success, we must establish local factories. Getting news (newspaper, magazine, radio, TV) about our factory and solar module in your hometown is the first step in having a local factory. The first news item is getting our press release into your local media. It is also part of establishing you as working with us. The press release will include your name and how people can contact you. Other news items will be available later.
For more information for applicants:
Besides an Experience Certificate and recommendation, we’ll give you a referral fee on any contributions that can be attributed to you or to other Publicist Partners you have recruited. Each Partner must prove that they had at least one news article published to get the fee. The term “attributed to you” means that when a donor uses your code or your recruit's code when he donates, you get credit for it. If we still can’t determine whose was responsible for the contribution, we’ll split the fee between the Publicist Partners who are closest to the donor.
United States of America P.R. Team Member
A Publicist Partner gets publicity for our company by getting news in your local media. The news can be any media: newspaper, magazine, radio or TV. Publicist Partners are part of our program to put solar factories into small towns. You can get referral fees for getting people to donate or for recruiting other Publicist Partners.
After the end of January, we’ll see how well you've done in your hometown. The top 10 Publicist Partners will be in the running for a factory in your hometown. If you've done well in publicizing our modules and factory or in getting contributions, we’ll help the winners find funding to build a solar factory in your hometown. Since each state has different laws, after January we will need to have a contract that will satisfy local jurisdictions. Our long term goal is for you to build a sustainable business in your hometown. As a Publicity Partner we want you personally to be the interface between us and your hometown. Others can help but we want you involved and in charge.
Job Location: Your Hometown
Job Duties:
1. College Student: We need to have people that can communicate with us about business in their hometown.
2. Live there: To be our Publicist Partner, you must have been raised in your hometown. We want local people who know how their hometown works and who to talk to. Note that this is NOT an exclusive territory. Others may want to be our Publicist Partner in your hometown too, especially if its a big town. We want you to be personally involved in marketing our products in the future; you will have to set up an organization that can help your hometown factory succeed.
3. Publication: For our solar products to be a success, we must establish local factories. Getting news (newspaper, magazine, radio, TV) about our factory and solar module in your hometown is the first step in having a local factory. The first news item is getting our press release into your local media. It is also part of establishing you as working with us. The press release will include your name and how people can contact you. Other news items will be available later.
For more information for applicants:
We’ll give you a referral fee on any contributions that can be attributed to you or to other Publicity Partners you have recruited. Each Publicity Partner must prove that they had at least one news article published to get the fee. The term “attributed to you” means that when a donor uses your code or your recruit's code when he donates, you get credit for it. If we still can’t determine whose was responsible for the contribution, we’ll split the fee between the Publicist Partners who are closest to the donor. Register on our website and we'll send you details, the press release and your referral code.
International P.R. Team
A Publicist Partner gets publicity for our company by getting news in your local media. The news can be any media: newspaper, magazine, radio or TV. Publicist Partners are part of our program to put solar factories into small towns. You can get referral fees for getting people to donate or for recruiting other Publicist Partners.
After the end of January, we’ll see how well you've done in your hometown. The top 10 Publicist Partners will be in the running for a factory in your hometown. If you've done well in publicizing our modules and factory or in getting contributions, we’ll help the winners find funding to build a solar factory in your hometown. Since each state has different laws, after January we will need to have a contract that will satisfy local jurisdictions. Our long term goal is for you to build a sustainable business in your hometown. As a Publicity Partner we want you personally to be the interface between us and your hometown. Others can help but we want you involved and in charge.
Job Location: Your Hometown
Job Duties:
1. College Student: We need to have people that can communicate with us about business in their hometown.
2. Live there: To be our Publicist Partner, you must have been raised in your hometown. We want local people who know how their hometown works and who to talk to. Note that this is NOT an exclusive territory. Others may want to be our Publicist Partner in your hometown too, especially if its a big town. We want you to be personally involved in marketing our products in the future; you will have to set up an organization that can help your hometown factory succeed.
3. Publication: For our solar products to be a success, we must establish local factories. Getting news (newspaper, magazine, radio, TV) about our factory and solar module in your hometown is the first step in having a local factory. The first news item is getting our press release into your local media. It is also part of establishing you as working with us. The press release will include your name and how people can contact you. Other news items will be available later.
For more information for applicants:
Besides an Experience Certificate and recommendation, we’ll give you a referral fee on any contributions that can be attributed to you or to other Publicist Partners you have recruited. Each Partner must prove that they had at least one news article published to get the fee. The term “attributed to you” means that when a donor uses your code or your recruit's code when he donates, you get credit for it. If we still can’t determine whose was responsible for the contribution, we’ll split the fee between the Publicist Partners who are closest to the donor.
United States of America P.R. Team Member
A Publicist Partner gets publicity for our company by getting news in your local media. The news can be any media: newspaper, magazine, radio or TV. Publicist Partners are part of our program to put solar factories into small towns. You can get referral fees for getting people to donate or for recruiting other Publicist Partners.
After the end of January, we’ll see how well you've done in your hometown. The top 10 Publicist Partners will be in the running for a factory in your hometown. If you've done well in publicizing our modules and factory or in getting contributions, we’ll help the winners find funding to build a solar factory in your hometown. Since each state has different laws, after January we will need to have a contract that will satisfy local jurisdictions. Our long term goal is for you to build a sustainable business in your hometown. As a Publicity Partner we want you personally to be the interface between us and your hometown. Others can help but we want you involved and in charge.
Job Location: Your Hometown
Job Duties:
1. College Student: We need to have people that can communicate with us about business in their hometown.
2. Live there: To be our Publicist Partner, you must have been raised in your hometown. We want local people who know how their hometown works and who to talk to. Note that this is NOT an exclusive territory. Others may want to be our Publicist Partner in your hometown too, especially if its a big town. We want you to be personally involved in marketing our products in the future; you will have to set up an organization that can help your hometown factory succeed.
3. Publication: For our solar products to be a success, we must establish local factories. Getting news (newspaper, magazine, radio, TV) about our factory and solar module in your hometown is the first step in having a local factory. The first news item is getting our press release into your local media. It is also part of establishing you as working with us. The press release will include your name and how people can contact you. Other news items will be available later.
For more information for applicants:
We’ll give you a referral fee on any contributions that can be attributed to you or to other Publicity Partners you have recruited. Each Publicity Partner must prove that they had at least one news article published to get the fee. The term “attributed to you” means that when a donor uses your code or your recruit's code when he donates, you get credit for it. If we still can’t determine whose was responsible for the contribution, we’ll split the fee between the Publicist Partners who are closest to the donor. Register on our website and we'll send you details, the press release and your referral code.
Manufacturing Team Member Discription
A Maker produces FourFold solar modules. See “Typical Teams.pdf” under Factory, New Businesses. Once your local factory has been established, your duties are to make Focused Sun products. You’ll work with other factory team members to make your factory a success.
Job Location: TBD
Job Duties:
1. Find Team Members: Each factory has between 5 and 10 members. Some of those members will want to sell solar modules, others will want to make them and others will want to install them.
2. You can recruit the other members yourself or we can use our network to help you find others near you. Set up Partnership: After you have your team together, you need to set up an LLC partnership. Business Structure.PDF.
A Maker produces FourFold solar modules. See “Typical Teams.pdf” under Factory, New Businesses. Once your local factory has been established, your duties are to make Focused Sun products. You’ll work with other factory team members to make your factory a success.
Job Location: TBD
Job Duties:
1. Find Team Members: Each factory has between 5 and 10 members. Some of those members will want to sell solar modules, others will want to make them and others will want to install them.
2. You can recruit the other members yourself or we can use our network to help you find others near you. Set up Partnership: After you have your team together, you need to set up an LLC partnership. Business Structure.PDF.
Partnerships
With our Microgrid product, local entrepreneurs can start their own energy company. You do not need high-tech tools to fabricate a Microgrid system. A team of Focused Sun trained technicians and locally purchased materials can do the job.
Get going with low-level investment: Low-cost parts.
The Microgrid's collectors use sandwich fabrication to make the lowest cost structure to withstand the wind loads that a solar collector faces. Heat storage uses concrete. We are using the lowest cost storage material, available worldwide and familiar to local workers. The genset is based on low-cost automotive parts and is highly efficient.
Train your technicians in only two weeks: Easy set-up Assembly is easy.
The Microgrid plant ships with all the required parts inside the container. Once on site, the same container used for shipping becomes the plant’s weather cover for its thermal heat storage engine/generator (genset). The collectors are assembled and mounted on the roof. Heat is stored in a cylinder of concrete poured into a metal form on-site. After the concrete cures, it is surrounded by insulation to create efficient heat storage. Heat transfer tubes embedded in the concrete heat the concrete and use that heat for other purposes: generate electricity, clean water, cool air, make ice, food processing, fabric processing, enhanced oil recovery and district space heating. Read more Economics Start New Businesses Information for Existing Businesses Example: 20 kW CSP Solar Heat Plant (PDF)
Make Microgrids or make more factories
While we provide expertise, training and the initial parts, we want to give you the full freedom an entrepreneur deserves. Your company can simply make Microgrid units or—if your market supports it—you can make other Microgrid factories. Your license let’s you make more Microgrids for sale locally or to make other Microgrid factories, so long as you maintain the Focused Sun brand.
Inexpensive »Starter kit« to get going
Your factory will need a demo unit as a sales tool. As we have learned, your reseller clients will need to “touch and feel” the high temperature heat and see the solar collectors at work. Also, the demo plant needs to be produced at low cost. Luckily, this is a challenge simple to solve: the cost of a plant is proportional to the size of its genset – and our demo units have a small genset. After searching suppliers from around the world, we found an inexpensive genset that is small (3.5 kW) and efficient (18%), just the right size for you to convince customers and get started at almost no financial risk.Example
A company in Nigeria wants to start supplying the local clinic with heat and electricity, since the conventional grid is expensive and prone to breakdowns. They send four workers on Focused Sun's training.
After two weeks, the four workers return together with a container. After a week, the container has transformed into the first microgrid on place, a low-cost demo version that even so does already start to produce heat and electricity – both heavily needed by the clinic.
Since the company can produce on-site, they can offer both a reliable energy source and a lower price than the conventional power grid.
With our Microgrid product, local entrepreneurs can start their own energy company. You do not need high-tech tools to fabricate a Microgrid system. A team of Focused Sun trained technicians and locally purchased materials can do the job.
Get going with low-level investment: Low-cost parts.
The Microgrid's collectors use sandwich fabrication to make the lowest cost structure to withstand the wind loads that a solar collector faces. Heat storage uses concrete. We are using the lowest cost storage material, available worldwide and familiar to local workers. The genset is based on low-cost automotive parts and is highly efficient.
Train your technicians in only two weeks: Easy set-up Assembly is easy.
The Microgrid plant ships with all the required parts inside the container. Once on site, the same container used for shipping becomes the plant’s weather cover for its thermal heat storage engine/generator (genset). The collectors are assembled and mounted on the roof. Heat is stored in a cylinder of concrete poured into a metal form on-site. After the concrete cures, it is surrounded by insulation to create efficient heat storage. Heat transfer tubes embedded in the concrete heat the concrete and use that heat for other purposes: generate electricity, clean water, cool air, make ice, food processing, fabric processing, enhanced oil recovery and district space heating. Read more Economics Start New Businesses Information for Existing Businesses Example: 20 kW CSP Solar Heat Plant (PDF)
Make Microgrids or make more factories
While we provide expertise, training and the initial parts, we want to give you the full freedom an entrepreneur deserves. Your company can simply make Microgrid units or—if your market supports it—you can make other Microgrid factories. Your license let’s you make more Microgrids for sale locally or to make other Microgrid factories, so long as you maintain the Focused Sun brand.
Inexpensive »Starter kit« to get going
Your factory will need a demo unit as a sales tool. As we have learned, your reseller clients will need to “touch and feel” the high temperature heat and see the solar collectors at work. Also, the demo plant needs to be produced at low cost. Luckily, this is a challenge simple to solve: the cost of a plant is proportional to the size of its genset – and our demo units have a small genset. After searching suppliers from around the world, we found an inexpensive genset that is small (3.5 kW) and efficient (18%), just the right size for you to convince customers and get started at almost no financial risk.Example
A company in Nigeria wants to start supplying the local clinic with heat and electricity, since the conventional grid is expensive and prone to breakdowns. They send four workers on Focused Sun's training.
After two weeks, the four workers return together with a container. After a week, the container has transformed into the first microgrid on place, a low-cost demo version that even so does already start to produce heat and electricity – both heavily needed by the clinic.
Since the company can produce on-site, they can offer both a reliable energy source and a lower price than the conventional power grid.