Stanford Start-Up Seeks To Make Solar Cheaper Than Coal

For some student entrepreneurs, inventing new products and creating companies is as second nature as completing homework assignments on time. For Stanford sophomore Tom Currier, Black Swan Solar is company number ten.

Green technology is undoubtedly a hot industry, largely because of its priority on state and federal agendas plus the ability to supplant older technologies in the multi-trillion dollar energy industry. With evidence of global warming, government officials and climate scientists alike are looking to use these technologies to increase reliance on renewable energy sources. With Black Swan Solar, Currier and his co-founder Wasiq Bokhari are prototyping a device that will make solar a cheaper energy source than coal.

"Coal plants aren't the enemy," Currier said. "They're the solution. They can be the greenest energy plant in the nation, and the infrastructure is already built everywhere."

Two years ago, Currier dreamed up his "drastic idea" and worked on it for a year and a half. To make solar power cheaper than coal, Currier isn't proposing the creation of massive solar panel fields, but using existing coal plants themselves, a 150-year-old technology.

"Two-thousand pounds of coal costs $40," Currier said. "It's not dirt cheap. It's coal cheap."

But Currier said his device can still be four times cheaper than the current technology available. Their product, which combines solar and coal technologies, can create steam that will reach temperatures of 550 degrees Celsius, the same temperature that coal-only power plants generate.

The exact mechanics will remain a mystery for a year and a half due to pending patents filed with Fenwick & West, Currier said.

After developing the idea, Currier said he was ready to turn his solution into a company. He partnered with Stanford Student Enterprises (SSE) Labs, an incubator program at Stanford, to further give structure to his idea.

At Demo Day, Brad Garlinghouse, AOL's President of Consumer Applications, said, "I thought I was smart, then I meet guys like Tom who explain the engineering of coal plants to me. Then I realize he's ten times as smart as I am."

SSE Labs helped him find his co-founder, Bokhari, the CEO of large-scale solar company Dunya Power and who has been in the energy business for ten years.

"The idea is so intriguing that I could potentially leave my current occupation once we close our first round of institutional funding," Bokhari said. "Then I would come on board as full-time CEO."

Cameron Teitelman, founder and Co-Chairman of SSE Labs, said Currier was always fascinated by perpetual motion devices that continuously transfer energy, much like the desk ornament with five metallic balls that will pendulate forever.

"The sun is Tom's perpetual motion device, continuously creating energy and the most important one there is," he said.

At Mayo High School in Minnesota, Currier and two other students founded the Minnesota Student Energy Project in 2007. The trio raised $142,000 and installed solar panels on their high school and one other school to not only become greener, but to promote education about green technology. The co-founder's brother, Michael Allen, still runs the organization, which has over 330 students.

"Tom taught me everything I know about the solar business," Allen said. "He's always starting businesses and gave me the inspiration to start my own ideas. I credit Tom for forming the way I approached my last two years of high school, really grabbing the bull by the horns."

Because Currier and his co-founders have proven their model works, the organization is currently trying to secure a $300,000 grant to install solar panels on 25 high schools throughout Minnesota by 2012. But installation is just one part of the project. Educating high school students remains an integral part of the mission.

"In classic Tom Currier style, we're also fundraising $10,000 for curriculum changes so we can hammer out a truly remarkable educational package," Allen said.

But Currier doesn't define his success by the number of companies. In fact, he fondly remembers a company that "failed horribly" because of his product's "awkwardness."

As a high school student, Currier said he despised the uncomfortable school desks that he sat in for seven hours a day. So, naturally, he designed the "Seat Roll-up," made of memory foam pad that was very comfortable.

"Like Crocs," he said. "Comfortable, but ugly."

But in high school, when looking cool is a student's number one priority, the product didn't last and Currier moved on.

"I entered the hardcore phase. The energy phase," he said.

As side projects purely out of interest, Currier builds prototypes for wind turbines to understand how they capture energy from renewable resources. As a potential Physics major, he admits that forces like gravity and theories like relativity act as "filters" for some of his more farfetched ideas.

"His ideas are always so great," Allen said. "And if they're not life-changing, they're humorous, and even outlandish. You say 'Really, Tom? Is that what you're thinking?'"

But Teitelman added that his willingness to try anything and be open to any and all feedback is what makes him a great entrepreneur. He said Currier always has his eye on a very specific goal, but along the process of getting there, he is extremely open.

"A lot of entrepreneurs want to do it themselves," Teitelman said. "But Tom understands the value of collaborating with other people."

Bokhari added, "Tom is exceptional, especially for his age. He's an entrepreneur on multiple axes, like a music director who juggles everything at the same time."

As Currier returns for his sophomore year at Stanford, he is still devoting 80 to 100 hours a week to the company while juggling classes. He said if he receives seed funding from investors, he will pursue an independently designed major to pursue his real dream of changing the energy landscape.

"Black Swan Solar addresses a real market need," Bokhari said. "If we can become competitive with coal and natural gas without government subsidies, there is no reason for people to pollute the environment while producing energy. We're going to see a major shift in the industry."