
by Clarence Oxford
Los Angeles CA (SPX) Feb 08, 2026
Photo voltaic engineer and ABC Photo voltaic founder Brad Bartz will ship a keynote-style discuss titled “The Palos Verdes Landslide: Who Turned the Energy Again On?” throughout an upcoming neighborhood occasion at AltaSea on the Port of Los Angeles on March 14, 2026. The presentation blends scientific storytelling with real-world engineering expertise, exploring how elementary physics rules translate into resilient power options.
Bartz, who based ABC Photo voltaic greater than 25 years in the past, is thought for emphasizing sensible deployment of photo voltaic and battery applied sciences below difficult situations. His upcoming discuss begins with a stunning place to begin: quantum mechanics.
“Solar energy begins with a quantized power switch occasion – what I name a microscopic fist combat between mild and matter,” Bartz explains. “Billions of those tiny interactions occur each second, and collectively they create the electrical energy that powers our houses.”
The presentation traces the scientific lineage from Max Planck’s introduction of power quanta to Albert Einstein’s rationalization of the photoelectric impact – the phenomenon that makes photovoltaic electrical energy attainable. Bartz makes use of analogies starting from chocolate milk separation to ping-pong ball photons to assist audiences visualize complicated bodily processes.
However the central narrative strikes past idea.
The discuss attracts closely on Bartz’s firsthand expertise throughout the Palos Verdes landslide, the place widespread infrastructure disruptions created pressing demand for various energy options. In response to Bartz, the disaster revealed each the restrictions of conventional mills and the potential of cell photo voltaic battery methods.
“We realized that energy would not simply should be generated – energy wants to maneuver,” he stated.
That lesson led to the event of Rolling Battery, a cell photo voltaic power platform designed to quickly deploy clear energy to houses and services with out trenching or gas provide chains. Throughout early deployments, Bartz stories that cell photo voltaic methods restored energy to a number of residences inside a single day, demonstrating a brand new mannequin for distributed power resilience.
The idea has since developed into ongoing installations at AltaSea itself, the place moveable photo voltaic battery methods are presently supporting tenants navigating grid interconnection and allowing timelines. Bartz notes that the success of cell power options on land has impressed a maritime imaginative and prescient as nicely.
His discuss will introduce the idea of Floating Battery – a distributed power platform designed to assist the rising adoption of electrical boats by offering bidirectional charging functionality and daisy-chainable energy networks throughout harbor environments.
“Electrical vessels are coming, however charging infrastructure stays the bottleneck,” Bartz stated. “Floating power methods may also help bridge that hole whereas offering emergency energy resilience for coastal communities.”
AltaSea’s present rooftop photo voltaic set up, consisting of roughly 3,000 panels related on to the grid, serves as a real-time demonstration of distributed renewable power integration. Bartz emphasizes that though the system feeds energy into the broader utility community, native buildings are successfully powered by daylight by means of grid circulation dynamics.
The presentation concludes with a broader philosophical message linking quantum-scale power interactions to community-scale resilience.
“The landslide did not simply transfer land,” Bartz stated. “It moved energy – and as soon as energy can transfer, all the things adjustments.”
About AltaSea on the Port of Los Angeles
AltaSea is a public-private ocean innovation campus targeted on sustainability, marine science, and blue-economy expertise improvement.
About Brad Bartz: Brad Bartz is founding father of ABC Photo voltaic Integrated, a renewable power engineering firm specializing in photo voltaic and battery methods for residential, industrial, and resilience-focused deployments.
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