Our People

NOTE: As we are always making new contacts, this list trails behind the latest wonderful folks who are working with us on our various projects.

We will try to update as often as possible!

Paul Klinkman

Paul is the inventor. Paul has a Masters Degree in Computer Science from the University of Rhode Island, and a second Masters Degree in Political Science, also from the University of Rhode Island. These two particular fields happen to both be rather useful in the solar invention field.

Paul has had a rather improbable life so far. The stories go on and on but for now two examples will have to do. In the year 2000, while working for an SAT test preparation firm in suburban Boston, he found a simple SAT hack, Paul's "Never Guess D" rule for quantitative comparison questions, perhaps 40 free points on the SAT Mathematics test for the average student in any school system willing to pay up. Three years later the Educational Testing Service came up with the "New SAT" which eliminated the quantitative comparison questions. It's hard to beat Vegas for long.

Paul absolutely doesn't gamble and doesn't promote gambling, but he wrote a new kind of software program that finds a best fit for, say, 32 variables representing NFL team strengths based on scoring relative to the other teams. For a ten year period he predicted football games on the Boston Globe's comments forum and later on https://patriotsfans.freeforums.net. His forecasting software delivered the best point spread predictions in the world at any price for several years, although in later years artificial intelligence software was catching up with Paul's program. For years, every week that Paul destroyed the point spread he published another tall tale about the ficticious "University of Beating Vegas like a Drum," featuring Professor Vinnie whose uncle fixes the games, Dr. Elwood P. Dowd and his imaginary friend, the Psychic Department and university alumni fundraising appeals claiming "who are we kidding, we don't need your money."

Paul takes a comprehensive Thomas Edison approach to inventing, where as many as 100 separate innovations might be needed to properly reinvent a field. Modern U.S. transit systems are especially vulnerable to massive-scale innovation, because there haven't been any strong market forces whatsoever driving the field.

The Wright Brothers beat out a number of million dollar flight research efforts in the 1900s because they understood which critical problems had to be researched and solved -- getting more power, using the power more efficiently for lift and controlling the airplane's movements in the air. In the 1960s NASA invested $6 million in a ball point pen that could write in outer space, while the Soviets used a pencil.

Paul worked as a research programmer for a climatologist at Brown University for five years. He recognized the danger of climate change early on - he started focusing on the renewable energy and climate change fields in the late 1990s. He was mentored by Domenic Bucci, long-time President of the Rhode Island Solar Energy Association, and he and Liberty typeset and proofread the Association's newsletter for five years.

Since about the year 2000, Paul has been co-coordinator of a golf cart service at Friends General Conference, an annual conference of perhaps 1200 Quakers. About 30 volunteer drivers use 7-10 carts to ferry about 120 priority riders with mobility issues, also parents with small children and freight, around a college campus for the week of the conference, from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. each day. In doing so, the campus becomes quite accessible. Paul is used to being a solitary inventor but he pivots into a decent committee animal as needed.

Liberty Goodwin
Liberty Goodwin is Paul’s wife.  In the late 1970s, as research associate at the CT-based Fund for Secure Energy (FUSE), she explored many alternative energy options & concerns.  She is presently Director of the non-profit Toxics Information Project (TIP). Contact her at liberty@klinkmansolar.com or at www.toxicsinfo.org

The Greene School
The Greene School took a risk with us, but it was a smart risk. They have a world-beating solar greenhouse prototype on their campus, sustainable, zero-fuel, off-grid, dehumidified, with 150% of winter sunlight on the plants. They're not only concerned about climate change but they accomplished something, and we'll soon enough find out about the size of their accomplishment.

Home Depot
Credit Marcello, regional manager for the Home Depot, for giving the Greene School over $4000 of project materials at cost.