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on YouTube.) Billy and Dan were living on the reservation at the time and were inspired
by the struggle to start Solar Mosaic.
Perhaps the sweetest twist to this tale is that Billy married a woman named Wahleah
Johns, one of the project managers from Black Mesa Water Coalition, the nonprofit
working to shut down the Navajo power plant. Wahleah and her colleagues are now try-
ing to build a major solar project on the site of the old mine. This would be a multi-
gigawatt development, and because it's already close to transmission lines on degraded
land, it may be the best use of the site. It could be paid for with a Solar Mosaic. Because
the company is in startup mode, Billy and Dan have decided to walk before they run
and are providing solar home solutions for residences on the Navajo reservation, whose
peopleareamongthepoorestintheUnitedStates,withanaverageannualincomeofless
than $10,000. More than 18,000 people there don't have running water or electricity.
This must be one of the vilest ironies in American life. These poor but proud people
have had more than $100 billion worth of coal extracted from their lands and have had
high-voltage transmission cables running over their heads for decades, yet the system of
electricity generation that we've all had to suffer has been unable to service them with
this basic commodity. Solar systems on their homes are clearly a superior solution.
Billy and Dan demonstrate that feisty campaigners can make good, by bringing their
values to the world of finance. This is the moment in history when major new econom-
ic models will be built on the convergence of new energy and information technologies.
With a crowdfunding platform on the web to back solar projects, Solar Mosaic is show-
ing the way.Ingenuity—the unique combination ofthings—is a key to oursolar success.
Zhengrong Shi: Epitomizing the Can-Do Approach
While Billy and Dan are feisty and successful campaigners, some who represent the best
andbrightestintheNewGreatestGenerationmaynotactuallyconsiderthemselvessuch.
Zhengrong Shi, PhD, is known to many as “the Sun King.” He's a Chinese-Australian
national who earned his doctorate in photovoltaic engineering at the University of New
South Wales in Sydney. Then, back in China, he received a grant from the local govern-
ment of the city of Wuxi, in Yixing Province, to build a factory to produce solar cells
andpanelsforexport,andinthepastdecadehehasbuiltitintoprobablythelargestsolar
company in the world. Next year his company expects to produce 3 gigawatts of solar
modules, which is the equivalent of building three nuclear power plants in a year. More
than 10 percent of that will be deployed in China, which is very good news for reducing
coal burning. His creation is really taking the fight to King CONG!
Yet when I visited China a few years ago, Dr. Shi gave me some personal time,
remembering when he and I were on a panel together in Australia's old Parliament
