International leader visits green business, research campus

SBM Solar, Inc., a groundbreaking Concord-based company making the only UL-certified non-glass solar panels in the world, has partnered with a new electric car manufacturer in an effort to give the cars more travel range.

Vision Motor Cars, Inc., which is developing and manufacturing electric vehicles, plans to install SBM Solar’s panels into its vehicles to increase the distance they can travel before they must be recharged.

Both companies met with Singapore Ambassador to the United States Chan Heng Chee in Concord Tuesday morning to discuss their breakthroughs in technologies that will reduce the international dependence on oil. Chan also visited the North Carolina Research Campus to learn more about advances in biotechnology. She was accompanied by Congressman Larry Kissell.

SBM Solar has been working to find new uses for the lightweight solar panels since it opened earlier this year, said Jay Rao, Chief Marketing Officer for SBM Solar.

The solar panels are now being used on boats on the West Coast, Rao said. They are being marketed to high-end retailers who want a covered parking area that generates electricity. That electricity can be sold back to the electric company and lower the business’ energy costs. And now the company is working with the electric car manufacturer, Rao said.

“Here in the U.S., there are loads of financial incentives to install solar panels,” Rao told Ambassador Chan, who asked about how the panels worked in the winter.

Osbert Cheung, president and founder of SBM Solar, said the panels actually work better in winter because solar panels are more effective in cooler temperatures.

Cheung, who came to the United States from his home in Beijing, China, in 1980, was a chemist and professor before he developed a new type of solar panel made from a lightweight material that increases the possible uses for solar energy panels.

In the past, solar panels have been too heavy to place in the hoods of cars, especially electric cars, said Brooks Agnew, the president and CEO of Vision Motor Cars, Inc.

“Once you disconnect (an electric car) from the wall, it’s all about the physics,“Agnew said. “In the auto industry, if you can cut one pound off the weight of the vehicle, you get a bonus.“

Agnew said SBM Solar’s panels will help increase the range of the electric vehicles, which can be operated for a cost of about 75 cents per day.

Agnew’s response to the Smart car, which gets 33 miles per gallon, is the Hopper, which will get 300 miles per gallon. He said the U.S. Postal

Service is interested in purchasing 18,000 of his vehicles.

Agnew said the electric cars he is developing will have air conditioning and heat thanks in part to the solar panels. One feature the vehicles will have is that the owner can call the car on a cell phone and tell the car to turn on the air conditioning. There’s no motor to run, he said, so it doesn’t waste fuel.

Ambassador Chan said Singapore is a progressive nation, which has excellent public transportation and discourages the use of vehicles as much as possible with taxes on vehicles.

“The traffic jams are not as bad as elsewhere,” she said. “You won’t get the 10-day traffic jam in Singapore.“

Other parts of Asia aren’t as fortunate. On Aug. 14, a huge traffic jam developed on the Beijing-Tibet highway leading to China’s capital of Beijing. The traffic jam reportedly stretched 60 miles and lasted 10 days, according to the Associated Press.

Chan said Singapore is a gateway to Asia for trade. That’s because Singapore has high standards for products.

“If a product comes into Singapore and passes the tests, then it moves more easily into the other Asian markets,” she said.

Chan also visited the North Carolina Research Campus Tuesday. The campus leadership touted the centers world-class technology and new approaches to studying human health and how it relates to agriculture and nutrition. Chan toured the facility and talked to workers there about Biopolis, a similar venture in Singapore.

Biopolis is located near the National University of Singapore, the National University Hospital and the Singapore Science Parks. Its mission is to become a world-class biomedical science research and development hub in Asia.

Clyde Higgs, vice president of business development for the North Carolina Research Campus, said he hoped the one thing Chan took away from her visit to the campus was that when people or companies in Singapore and at Biopolis are looking for partnerships, they think about the Research Campus in Kannapolis.

Chan said the emphasis at Biopolis is slightly different. The center focuses on issues regarding the affects of stress and aging on the body where as the North Carolina Research Campus focuses on nutrition and its affect on the body.

For more information about Vision Motor Cars, Inc., visit www.visionmotorcars.com/index.html. For more information about SBM Solar, Inc., visit www.sbmsolar.com. For more information about the North Carolina Research Campus, visit www.ncresearchcampus.net.