About Heliotex™
Gene Hunt and Mike Workman are co-owners of Heliotex™, LLC. The company was developed after both owners had solar panels placed on their personal homes and discovered the "dirty little secret" about solar panels. The secret being that dirty panels lose up to 25% or more of their potential output.
They searched the web trying to find information about the impact of dirt, dust and debris on solar panel electrical production and how to address the issue. What they found was that there was definitely an issue but that solar power manufacturers were reluctant to discuss the issue, as there were few alternatives available. Manually washing the solar panels seemed to be the only option available. This was expensive and ran the risk of injury to cleaners, liability to the owner and potential damage to the roof and solar panels.
The amount of power lost could be significant, particularly in dirty, dusty areas and when owners never cleaned the panels or tried to clean them simply by rinsing using unfiltered water. They collaborated about the problem and over a period of time developed the Patent Pending Heliotex™ Automatic Solar Panel Cleaning System.
Their goal was to ensure that everyone who made the investment in solar panels would have the opportunity to achieve the maximum potential of each panel everyday, not just three or four times a year when the panels were manually cleaned. If all existing systems could increase their output by just 10%, the effect on the power grid would be tremendous. Every kilowatt of clean energy created helps our planet by reducing the amount of fossil fuels burned and the resultant reduction of greenhouse gasses.
Mike and Gene both have a wide range of job experience skills. Gene has worked in government for 30 years, with a wide range of job assignments including project management experience in construction of large buildings, homes and marine vessels.
Mike has experience in a large number of different areas, including the last fifteen years working in the commercial misting business. His expertise in this area was invaluable in determining the correct construction of the Heliotex™ system. Mike is also the owner of Advanced Systems Co. and Workman Racing.