Jack West (inventor)

Jack West is president and CTO of Zep Solar, a manufacturer of solar photovoltaic (PV) mounting and grounding equipment based in San Rafael, California. West is also an inventor, entrepreneur and musician. He is most known for inventing rail-free mounting technology and leading Zep Solar’s commercialization of that technology.[1] Zep Solar was acquired by SolarCity in 2013.[2] West founded Zep Solar in 2009 along with Christina Manansala and Daniel Flanigan[3] and helped to grow the company into the market leader in residential solar mounting equipment.[4] In 2014, one in three residential solar systems installed in the United States contained Zep Solar technology.[2]

History

In the early '90s, prior to founding Zep Solar, West launched the photovoltaic division of Light Energy Systems, a PV design and contracting firm that designed and installed the San Francisco Bay Area’s first grid-tied PV system[5] The company was later acquired by Acro.[6] In 2000, West and Manansala co-founded High Sun Engineering, one of the first engineering consultancies focused on PV system design.[7] West was inspired as a college student to end reliance on fossil fuels and served in 1990 as co-director of the Campus Center for Appropriate Technology, a student-run sustainability organization at Humboldt State University.

Musical career

West is also an accomplished jazz guitarist, having released five albums[8] with his band Jack West & Curvature and one solo album.[9] Acoustic Guitar Magazine awarded Jack West's fourth album, As We Know It, top honors in its self-released CD competition in 2000.[10] West’s music is frequently used as segue music for NPR programming[11] and he was a winner of the John Lennon Songwriting Contest in 2004 for his composition, “This Life May be Monitored for Quality Assurance”.[12]

References

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Thursday, February 18, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.