Energy Outfitters

Bob Maynard has always been an entrepreneur. In the 1980's his telecommunications firm, Business Telecom, was Oregon's largest of its kind. Though the company's success at providing high quality telephone systems produced high profits, Bob was looking for more: "By 1987 it was a corporate monster. I woke up one morning and realized that I had reached a point where I was no longer in touch with the technology or the customers - I was just not happy managing employees and cash flow."

Bob sold his interest in the company and took a sabbatical, moving to remote property along the Illinois River near the Kalmiopsis Wilderness. The property was littered with rusting mining equipment and debris left by squatters. He planned to "clean up the mess" on the property and sort out his life. Motivated by his need for water and power, he began to research renewable energy. "I started experimenting with solar, water rams, micro hydro turbines, and ended up developing little systems that solved my problems." Bob gained a reputation as the guy with solutions to the challenges of living "off the grid."

Helping neighbors was the genesis of Energy Outfitters. "I didn't start it with the idea of building it into another big business. It was really more of a hobby." Nonetheless, in 1991 Bob "hung out a shingle" in Cave Junction and embraced the business as an extension of his sabbatical. Sound advice and word of mouth brought in customers, and soon, Energy Outfitters was growing. Bob also entered the market at a good time; increased public awareness and the development of highly efficient inverters able to power standard household appliances expanded the potential market for alternative energy products. Until then, the market had been limited to "folks that were putting power into batteries and trying to run little 12 volt lights and RV appliances."

In 1995, as the demands of the business grew, Ray Ogden joined Bob as a partner.

The big scares of the past few years served to further expand business. Y2K brought new customers afraid of massive technological failure, as did the rolling blackouts of California's recent energy crisis. Bob sees these events as leading to "a great public awakening that we have no control over our energy. That has prompted a percentage of the population to want better control over their energy - that's what's driving the market today."

Education is a key part of the business. "In the years that I've been here, I would bet that 70 percent of my hours have been spent in educational conversations and discussions, and 30 percent of my time running the business and selling product. We always put educating the person about renewable energy ahead of selling the customer renewable energy products."

"Probably the most frustrating thing for me about our school system today," says Bob, "is that we don't teach watts and kilowatts at the first grade level. We teach inches and feet.We teach gallons.We teach degrees. But we don't teach watts and kilowatts. Most adults in this country don't know anything about energy except that they have to pay the power bill. They don't know about energy because we're used to an abundant, cheap supply."

This need for greater public awareness of energy issues has led Bob into the realm of public policy. As Ray and a growing staff take care of business supporting the company's nationwide dealer network, Bob increasingly works to promote state policies better suited to expand renewable energy. His major contributions have been made in helping to develop forward-thinking legislation.

The Net Metering Law, which took effect in 1999, allows a home with a renewable energy system to feed excess energy back onto the grid, turning the power meter backwards. Net metering allows a market-rate, kilowatt-for-kilowatt trade between homes and utilities. "The goal of net metering is not for home-owners to become a small power generating source in order to get a check from the utilities." Instead the larger hope is that having small amounts of generating capacity located in population centers will allow society to delay, and perhaps even avoid building more costly and environmentally- damaging power plants. This is called distributive generation.

Bob explains, "In the big picture this is the only thing that makes sense. We can take an existing infrastructure and we can either outgrow it and replace it, or we can use distributive generation and leave the existing infrastructure good for another ten to twenty years."

Bob was instrumental in drafting another piece of legislation that has created a special license for renewable energy installation. Historically, renewable energy suppliers could design and supply systems, but only licensed electrical contractors could install them. Businesses that sold the systems couldn't install them and electrical contractors were often not keen on alternative systems. Consumers were left puzzled.

With a renewable energy installation license renewable energy contractors can provide services to consumers in much the same way as traditional electricians. The legislation passed through the Oregon legislature with overwhelming support and was signed into law by Governor Kitzhaber in June 2001. The first licensed technicians have completed state certification. This has facilitated the process of installing renewable energy systems and helped to improve relationships with electrical contractors, who increasingly embrace renewable technology.

Bob Maynard cites two factors that make the eventual transition to renewable energy virtually inevitable. Though many consumers still feel the up-front investment in renewable energy is too high, production costs for renewable technologies have dropped significantly over the years, and promise to continue to do so. As the cost of other sources of energy continue to rise, consumers will drive the transition. "Consumer spending statements are quicker and more powerful than the choices we are presented at the ballot box."

Bob sees an event of even greater significance on the horizon. Those in the know refer to it as the "rollover". The rollover will happen when global daily consumption of fossil fuel exceeds global daily extraction. "According to the fossil fuel industry, we'll pass the rollover in the next ten years. That's enough handwriting on the wall to tell people in common sense terms that fossil fuel costs are going to skyrocket. If we can't extract it as fast as we're using it, there's not going to be enough to go around. So what comes into play beyond fossil fuels?"