TechFocus Member Spotlight: Phocos
We were happy to have James Polcyn, CEO at Phocos on this edition of the TechFocus podcast. Phocos was founded 20 years ago to bring reliable energy to those who do not have access to it. The company is headquartered in Germany and supported by three regional offices in Tucson, Arizona, India, and China. The regional offices provide local sales support, engineering, and R&D to serve their customers.
“Our vision as a company is to make reliable energy possible anywhere, anytime, and under any grid conditions,” said Polcyn. “Our pathway to achieving this is through the design and supply of world-class sustainable energy production, electronics, storage utilization, and other types of electronics, that minimize the total cost of ownership to the end-user.”
The company recently introduced the any-grid line of inverters expanding its traditional pure off-grid business. “What we realized is if you look at how many people in the world live without any access to grid power, there’s an equal or even greater number of people in the world who have access to grid power, but it’s highly unreliable leading to frequent blackouts during the day,” said Polcyn.
This is a problem that not only affects people in developing economies but also right here in Arizona. “Look no further than the record heat waves that we experienced in the Western US in 2020 and the rolling blackouts throughout large areas of California.” Polcyn added, “Our grid infrastructure in the US is not always capable of meeting user demands. Solar backup systems for grid resiliency are increasingly playing a role in solving these needs, and we expect the any-grid products to play an increasingly crucial role in meeting that demand.” In early 2021 the company is aiming to launch a product that would address the grid resiliency problems in places like California.
Listen to this podcast to hear more from Polcyn discuss how Phocos is creating a world class organization across multiple countries and cultures.
