Open Energy Corp. (Open Energy) is a Solana Beach, California company that develops solar products and energy management solutions. 

Open Energy recently announced the launch of its EcoTouch Energy Management System (EcoTouch), which the company is developing and marketing in partnership with Advanced Telemetry.  The EcoTouch system is designed to provide homeowners with detailed information about their energy use and improved ability to conserve energy.

EcoTouch tracks and displays the total energy demand and net energy usage for a home in real time and allows homeowners to view and control different household devices to reduce their energy costs.  The system can be connected to a homeowner’s solar installation and provides detailed information including the number of kilowatt hours produced by the solar installation.

Open Energy recently filed a trademark and service mark application (ecotouch_app.pdf) for the ECOTOUCH mark for home automation systems that monitor energy consumption, in Class 9, and for computer network services for monitoring and controlling home automation systems, in Class 38.

Open Energy also owns at least two patent applications relating to photovoltaic systems for rooftops.  U.S. Application Pub. No. 2005/0178428 (‘428 application) is directed to a layered system for roof mounting that is specifically designed for use with large photovoltaic cells. 

The system of the ‘428 application includes a flexible base membrane layer on the bottom that attaches to the roof, a photovoltaic layer, a semi-rigid layer to provide rigidity to the PV layer, and a top, transparent layer to protect the other layers.  The four layers are attached to form a unitary structure.

U.S. Application Pub. No. 2008/0149163 (‘163 application) is directed to a system for mounting photovoltaic cells.  The system comprises a tile frame (6) which houses the solar cells and expansion arms (90) with wells (96) that contain an adhesive.  The adhesive is used to bond protective covers to the tiles.

The tile frames also have openings shaped to accommodate the expansion arms and vents (110) to keep the PV cells cool.  Multiple tiles are connected by advancing the expansion arms of one tile through the openings of an adjacent tile. 

With both energy management and solar solutions, Open Energy is a diverse company targeting the clean energy market from multiple angles.

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