Colorado company wrapping thin-film solar on electric poles

A tiny new solar company in Colorado took a big idea and turned into something even more useful than imagined.

NextStepElectric started marketing solar panels for power poles in 2008 with the common sense idea that wrapping thin-film solar around the literal pillars of the electric grid would eliminate a lot of the transmission debates in the solar world.

But a funny thing happened when the idea was born, said Osiris Stevens, NextStep founder and president.

"No one was interested," Stevens said.

He had trouble finding a solar manufacture to partner with him on this simple concept and had trouble finding electric utilities that would allow NextStepElectric to install the solar.

Part of the problem for utilities was that they didn't want to open up their power lines, letting energy flow in and out and weakening their security, Stevens said. They also didn't want people to have easy access to the utility's data.

That's when Stevens' business started going a new direction.

"It's kind of morphed into a security system for the utilities," Stevens said.

In order to assure the utilities that the system was secure, Stevens said NextStep had to engineer a monitoring device for its installations that would be secure and keep the utility's data secure. In doing that, Stevens said, they essentially turned a Freewave radio transmitter into a super-secure, smart-grid system that allows utility companies to monitor what's happening on their power lines, how much electricity is coming in and going out and if any of the lines have been illegally tapped.

It also allows the utility to see how much power the thin-film solar wrapped around their power lines is producing, Steven said.

The company has an installation in Longmont, Colo., that's producing 1.5 to 2 kilowatts a day. NextStep is also working with the City of Boulder and has been talking with Colorado's largest utility, Xcel Energy, about installing the combined solar and monitoring security system. The company is always looking for ways to improve and grow.

"We're looking for investors now," Stevens said. "I've been bootstrapping this myself the last couple years."

He said NextStepElectric was chosen as a finalist from more than 200 young companies at the Invest Midwest conference recently, which bodes well for its future.