Entrepreneurship at Swarthmore
The Jonathan R. Lax '71 Conference on Entrepreneurship
Sunday, March 30, 2008
11 a.m. – 5:30 p.m.
 | Gerry Lax '74 B.A., psychology |
Gerry has been involved in energy management in the construction industry for more than 35 years, most of it in the field of solar energy. During the energy crisis of the late 1970s and early 1980s he moved to California where state and federal tax credits provided the best opportunity to implement commercial solar energy. He joined and became a partner in a solar energy company in San Francisco. They were instrumental in the development of large scale commercial systems, designing and installing some of the largest solar thermal systems in Northern California, most of which are still in operation.
In the mid-1980s, employing much of the same marketing, the company sold and installed small scale natural gas cogenerators, providing both thermal and electrical energy. In the mid-1990s with advent of new power conditioning technology, the market for wide scale commercial solar electrical energy began to develop. California again led the nation in providing incentives, and in 1994, Gerry again found in the San Francisco Bay area the opportunity to design and build solar, this time in the photovoltaic industry.
The state of New Jersey's renewable portfolio standard mandating utilities to purchase renewable energy was instrumental in Gerry's decision to move back to the East Coast. Since moving to New Jersey in 2004, Gerry has been the senior designer and project manager with Advanced Solar Products, Inc., a firm instrumental in the photovoltaic market, installing more than six megawatts of solar energy primarily in the public sector.