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Definitive Solar Institute

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Eighth Grade Explanations: Why Solar Power in Texas?

Friday, April 25, 2014 6:25am - 7:20am EDT  
Host: Definitive Solar Institute
By: Rick Borry, CTO, Principal Solar and Dan Bedell, Executive Vice President - Marketing & Corporate Development, Principal Solar

Join Dr. Rick Borry and Dan Bedell in a guest appearance to Mr. Chacchia's eighth grade science class at Killian Middle School in Lewisville, Texas. 

  • Where does the electricity in your house come from?
  • How much does electricity cost?
  • Which saves more money - turning off the lights or installing solar panels?
  • How does solar power work?
  • Why would we want to use solar power?

First, we will investigate the electric power system in Texas as it applies to the students' lives.  Then, the students will use math and science to analyze the engineering principles behind electricity conservation and solar power generation.  We will look at the best times and places to generate solar power, and we'll review some free resources and apps related to solar power and the electric grid in Texas.

We will broadcast the 3rd period class live via this webinar.  All middle school science classes are encouraged to join.  You will be able to ask questions via text chat and we will answer as many as we can.  We will record the session and it will be available to the public for playback.

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Presenters

Rick Borry
Rick Borry (Host)

CTO, Principal Solar

Rick Borry joined Principal Solar as CTO in May 2011 with their acquisition of Capstone Solar Conferences and subsequent re-branding as the Principal Solar Institute. In addition to his role at Principal Solar, Dr. Borry serves as an advisor for Solar Logic at the University of North Texas in Denton.

Dr. Borry is a co-founder of Capstone Solar, where he produced a series of online conferences around the needs of solar professionals.  While at Capstone Solar, Rick founded Webvent.tv, which is credited as the first platform to build communities around online conferences. Most recently, Rick was the Chief Software Architect for Certain Software beginning with their acquisition of his online event registration startup, Register123.com. At various stages during that tenure, Rick worked in every department while the company grew to over 150 employees around the world.

Rick earned his Doctorate in Chemical Engineering from the University of California at Berkeley and his B.S. from Clemson University. Rick has worked as a research associate for Dupont in Delaware and an environmental engineer for Hoechst Celanese in South Carolina.


Dan Bedell
Dan Bedell

Executive Vice President - Marketing & Corporate Development, Principal Solar

Following a lifelong interest in renewable energy, Dan Bedell co-founded Capstone Solar, a think tank for solar professionals to exchange ideas on policy and technology and a platform for peer to peer branding, micro-networking and interactive solar webinars.

Dan previously worked on mergers and acquisitions in the global materials industry, integrating newly acquired businesses into a standard corporate footprint at Lehigh Hanson, Inc. Prior to that, Dan was COO and Director of Business Development for a Dallas-area construction company that was an early entrant into the "green" building market and the rooftop solar installation market. In that capacity, he was an advocate and evangelist for distributed solar generation in the state of Texas. He now brings that same passion for the inevitable mainstream adoption of solar power to Principal Solar.

Dan holds his B.B.A. in Economics from the University of North Texas where he graduated cum laude and spent a semester studying international finance in the UK.