Our Story

Three years ago, Brightfield Transportation Solutions began as a conversation among friends who shared a deep appreciation for nature, a love of bicycles, and a longing for more environmentally sound and socially responsible transportation. Those early conversations turned into rough sketches and then draft business pans. We honed our ideas, exposing the cutting edge where our strengths could be leveraged to create opportunity. What we came to were four key realizations:

• the American automobile fleet is beginning the transition from oil to electricity because over the next decades the supply of oil will dwindle;
• we have the technology and know-how to fuel electric vehicles effectively and reliably with renewable solar power;
• there is an unmet need for durable EV infrastructure that supports and inspires a vibrant EV market place;
• marrying the renewable energy and alternative transportation sectors through the manufacturing and deployment of solar powered EV charging stations creates meaningful and secure jobs.

So began the process of wrapping our brains around the science, economics and solutions of EV infrastructure. We researched every EV study, EV infrastructure component, solar photovoltaic product, existing and developing EV, market forecast and regional economic development plan we could get our hands on. Each new piece of information—form Project Get Ready, to the Electrification Road Map, to the roll-out of the Leaf and Volt, to Department of Energy goals, to North Carolina’s clean-tech sector focus—confirmed that we were riding the wave of innovation on rising seas of possibility.

Like every great business idea before us, there comes the need for capitalization. Our initial need was met by a grant from the North Carolina Department of Commerce’s Green Business Fund that, through the State Energy Office, administered US Department of Energy American Recovery and Reinvestment Act money aimed at growing the nation’s renewable energy sector. The grant enabled us to achieve our primary start-up objectives:

• locally design and manufacture solar supported EV charging stations we call Brightfields™;
• build strong public/private partnerships with city, county and state government that result in Brightfields™ being built on publicly accessible municipal and state-owned property;
• create collaborative relationships with regional organizations to support EV advocacy, infrastructure deployment, market development and funding;
• develop three public service announcements to provide EV education and inspiration to the public;
• launch a website to share the Brightfield TS vision, link the public to quality EV industry research, and demonstrate the possibility and desirability of solar-fueled transportation.

Building off of Brightfield® Transportation Solutions’ NCGBF grant success brokering public/private partnerships and deploying publicly accessible grid-tied solar EV charging stations, Brightfield Transportation Solutions (BTS) is launching a multi-phase regional EV infrastructure roll-out we call the Solar Driven Experience.

Phase 1: BTS is partnering with the North Carolina Plug-in Electric Vehicle Task Force , Nissan North America, Olsen Energy Corp, and private investors to secure the project capital and engage the strategic planning needed to make North Carolina the nation’s most innovative and vibrant EV market. BTS is raising $2.4 million to install 20 DC Fast Charge Brightfield Charging Stations equipped with a total of 20 DC Fast Chargers (able to charge an EV in under 30 min), 40 networked Level 2 chargers and 50kW of solar fuel, enough to provide North Carolinians with 300,000 fossil fuel free EV miles annually.

Brightfield Charging Stations generate solar power and provide durable and protected EV charging. Because Brightfields are grid-tied, solar fuel is generated and put on the grid whenever the sun is shining and electricity is dispensed from the grid to vehicles rain or shine, day or night. Brightfields provide consumers with the environmental, economic and social benefits of driving on sunshine, while providing cities, counties and the state a means of acquiring turn-key EV charging solutions at no upfront cost.

DC Fast Charge Brightfield stations will be deployed at high utilization locations in the greater Raleigh, Charlotte, Greensboro and Asheville Metro Areas to accelerate state-wide EV adoption and take the Solar Driven Experience to scale. This roll-out will focus on public charging installations in downtown commercial districts, universities and other strategic public locations.

This Brightfield DC Fast Charge roll-out will support EV sales while bolstering consumer confidence and excitement by deploying the charging infrastructure needed to ensure a safe, secure, zero-emission driving experience.

Along with providing investors with quality returns, engaging state-wide EV stakeholders, and enhancing EV market growth, execution of this Brightfield DC Fast Charge roll-out will reduce local air pollution, avoid 18 million pounds of greenhouse gas emissions annually, support 27 quality jobs per installed Brightfield, create clean tech economic development opportunities, enhance regional energy security, and build community resilience.