Meet Stan Ovshinsky, the Energy Genius

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Progress, Not Politics

Not long after his visit to Uni-Solar, President Bush urged Congress to put aside political differences and help fund renewable energy technologies. The big question is whether Bush’s epiphany will result in backing — both financial and political. “We want that,” Ovshinsky says with a sigh. “We need that, obviously. You’d expect that there would be skepticism, but this wasn’t legitimate skepticism that stopped us [in the past]. It was vested interests not wanting to change.” Our oil-based transportation system, for example, would be less relevant if the world moved to using hydrogen for fuel.

Even though Ovshinsky’s technologies would marginalize fossil fuels, the need for them wouldn’t be eliminated. “We’re not saying that oil is going to be irrelevant. It certainly has its place,” he says. “We’re not anti-anything. We want to solve problems with realistic solutions.”

So far, Ovshinsky has support from some unexpected places. For example, Texaco paid $67.3 million in May 2000 for a 20 percent stake in ECD Ovonics. (Texaco later merged with Chevron.) That investment allowed Texaco to work with ECD Ovonics on commercializing technologies such as its solid hydrogen storage and regenerative fuel cell. “They said: ‘Stan, we don’t want to change you. We want you to change us,’” Ovshinsky says.

Texaco’s conversion reflects Ovshinsky’s ability to sell renewable energy, even to those who’ve made their fortunes in oil. “He’s a visionary and a missionary,” says Frank Jamerson, a retired General Motors executive who’s known Ovshinsky for 30 years, and worked with him on electric vehicles in the 1990s. “He’s been inventing products that do exactly what I was hoping to do: eliminate fossil fuels, both with batteries and photovoltaics.”

Time will tell whether Bush’s visit and subsequent challenge to Congress turn out to be just more talk or the beginning of a genuine political push for renewable energy.

“Politics come and go, but progress has to go on, even under circumstances that aren’t ideal,” Ovshinsky says. “I’m out to change the world, and to do that, you have to work with people.” Ovshinsky says he’s proud of the culture he and Iris have established at ECD and grateful for the enormously talented people who work with them — especially ECD CEO Bob Stempel.

To create jobs, address climate change, take oil out of the war equation and deal with rising energy demands, Ovshinsky sees a need for government-backed initiatives on the scale of past energy efforts such as the Manhattan Project, the Tennessee Valley Authority and the Rural Electric Administration.

“In 1934, almost 90 percent of the rural population was without electricity,” Ovshinsky says. “When the [government] built the big dams and hydroelectric plants in the South and Northwest, they turned areas that were without hope into the most exciting areas around. It was a wonderful thing that came out of necessity.”

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