Palm Harbor entrepreneur launches portable energy storage unit for hurricane season
PALM HARBOR, Fla. - A 19-year-old Palm Harbor innovator and entrepreneur has launched a portable energy storage unit for this hurricane season.
The backstory:
From a young age, Noah Bild fell in love with building.
"I originally started with RC cars and then got into the electric sport called one-wheeling where I started building batteries," he said.
His Palm Harbor's home garage has been the place to innovate.
"Anything hands-on, anything electric. I thought the process of being able to power something is super cool," Bild said.
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Bild's latest project, the OffGrid Pro, has been in the works for two years.
Bild said last year's hurricane season was the catalyst to release the product now.
"We're close to the water," he said. "A lot of our neighbor's power went out. Our power went out."
He knew it would be the perfect hurricane tool for Tampa Bay communities.
Bild's mom, Traci, who is also BILD Power's COO, said it's been quite a journey.
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"We've been talking to the certification groups," she said. "Okay, what certifications do we need to do? What electrical standards do we have to meet?"
Dig deeper:
"It's completely odorless, fumeless, silent," Bild said.
It's a commercial-grade portable energy storage unit made up of Lithium iron Phosphate (LiFePO4).
"Just by the power bank alone, you can run your fridge 2 to 3 days," he said. "And once you hook up the solar panels to it, you can pretty much hook it up indefinitely."
Bild said it's made to rival the Tesla Powerwall, which can retail for upwards of $10,000 for half the price.
What's next:
Bild has marketed his product at street festivals in Safety Harbor, Palm Harbor and Tarpon Springs. He hopes to expand the product too for municipalities to use and someday create his own line of electric vehicles.
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"This is just the start, so anybody that's going to be supporting Noah is going to support the future of what we all may be using in 10 or 15 years," Traci said.
You can pre-order your OffGrid Pro now to be shipped by October 1st. To learn more, click here.
The Source: The information in this story was gathered by FOX 13's Jennifer Kveglis.
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