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Our advantages

  • 1
    Experience

    ADI Solar retains a lean, talented technical team with over 50 years’ (combined) engineering experience in the fields of aerodynamics, automotive, acoustics, computing, and chemistry. The team members are 15-year veterans of designing, building and testing thermal storage systems and heat engines. The technical team is balanced by 14 years of executive experience in business strategy and program management with a track record of significant organizational contributions.

  • 2
    Technical Innovation

    In new product development, no quality is as critical as innovation. Today, the Solar Thermal market is dominated by products utilizing thermal mass to store heat. ADI’s innovative technology has replaced this strategy by storing energy chemically in the heat of formation. As a consequence, its thermal storage hardware is up to ten times smaller - an order of magnitude improvement - leading to far lower equipment costs. The people at ADI have demonstrated time and again this ability to innovate and improve over current mainstream technologies, a quality that will continue to lead to future profitable products.

  • 3
    Market

    Far too often, great technologies fail because they faced a mature market full of advanced competitors. ADI Solar is entering a young market that that cries out for what ADI has to offer. Solar power - by its very nature - is disruptive. When the sun goes down the power goes off. Storing daytime energy can transform Solar Power into a non-disruptive technology, allowing it to produce electrical power 24-7 and making it competitive in today’s market. ADI Solar’s thermal storage technology offers significant cost advantages over mass thermal storage and chemical electric batteries. It is an enabling technology in a young, growing market.

Core Competencies

A Few Words About Us

ADI Solar is a high tech energy startup incorporated in Washington State by Wayne Bliesner and Gerald Fargo in 2009. At that time, ADI Solar’s sister company, the Stirling Engine Genset company ADI Thermal, had reached a stage where significant funding would be required for continued product prove-out. With investor stamina waning and new investors non-committal, a new application was needed to help pull the company into the market and infuse the enterprise with new investment interest. Solar technology, and in particular Solar Thermal, was starting to receive significant investor attention worldwide as one of the most exciting avenues for renewable energy. ADI Solar rose to the challenge, incorporating its best ideas and practices into a quantum leap in thermal storage technology: the Calcium Hydride Thermal Reactor.

Using this technology ADI Solar could produce a thermal storage device capable of an order of magnitude improvement over current state of the art storage devices. ADI Solar teamed with Australian financial partner EMC and proceeded to transform ideas into hardware. A tenth-scale reactor prototype was fabricated and sent through numerous test cycles, providing proof of concept at small scale. For solar application, the (patent pending) side-focusing heliostat was invented and the designs refined and expanded to full scale solar field application. A wind tunnel dish model was fabricated in order to provide useful wind load data for operational requirements. Manufacturing partners have been identified and approached. Business expertise was added to help identify opportunities and establish solid financial backing. As funding firms up, ADI Solar prepares for full scale development with durability trials leading to final design and the necessary business activities leading to full scale commercialization.

Our Team

  • Wayne Bliesner

    President/Founder

    Wayne Bliesner is the CEO and Founder of ADI Solar. He holds a BSCE and MSCE in Aeronautical Engineering from the University of Washington and has been researching and developing alternative energy power generation technologies for over fifteen years. Mr. Bliesner is an expert scientist and physicist, with an advanced understanding of chemical reactions, metallurgy, and liquid chemistry. As a distinguished scientist and engineer at Boeing for over 20 years, he has a detailed understanding and experience in building large-scale applications of complex programs. As the Inventor of the team, Wayne has been the main creative force for most of the new technology emerging from the enterprise. As the Leader, Wayne has been the planner and stategist of the team, and his persistence has driven the company to survive and eventually succeed.

  • Gerald Fargo

    VP Engineering

    Gerald Fargo is a 25 year veteran Executive/Engineer/Project Manager/Product Manager, including 12 years in alternative energy research and development. His technical background includes fluid dynamics, structural mechanics, automotive acoustics, solar optics, computational methods, CAD software development, CNC machining, correlation of test to theory, overall product design, and test to reliability. Gerald Fargo holds BS degrees in Aero/Astro Engineering and in Finance from the University of Illinois. As the Implementer of the team, Gerald is the creator/developer/refiner of ideas, adding practicality to Wayne’s creative talent and order to the chaos of creation.

  • Leigh Felton

    VP Marketing

    Leigh Felton is a highly skilled strategic business executive and program manager, with a track record of significant organization contribution. With over 14 years as an executive at Microsoft Corporation, Ms. Felton is a Principal Partner at ADI, and holds an MBA in Business Communications in Management from City University in Seattle, WA. As the Communicator and Strategist of the team, Leigh leads the company to new business opportunities in Marketing, Financing, and Team building.