The Phoenix area might not have snow or hot-cocoa weather on Christmas Eve, but one thing the Valley does have to get people into the Christmas mood is the Festival of Lights annual holiday display in the Ahwatukee Foothills. In early 2007, the 20-year tradition was threatened with darkness after a series of thefts left the nonprofit organization in need of new generators. The challenge remained, however, to find a reliable and efficient way to continually power the display’s 1 million white lightbulbs. Dan Jones, a retired IBM employee, immediately had a solution. He thought of his invention, born out of necessity in the hills of upstate New York and utilized for eight years at his home there – – a mobile solar-powered generator. ‘I said to one of my investors, ‘why don’t they just use a mobile solar generator?” says Jones, ‘and the next thing I know she contacted them, and they were interested.’ Jones then began work on an updated replica of the mobile solar- powered generator he built originally in 1999. The unit uses the same technology found in rooftop photovoltaic solar panels. An internal battery stores excess electricity produced when […]