They Called Him "The Edison of Our Age"

Posted by – Steve Cohen, Director of Community Development

We all desire to make a difference in the world.  Well, Stan Ovshinsky did.

A self-taught inventor who never attended college, Mr. Ovshinsky (together with his wife Iris) received hundreds of patents covering a range of technologies, including nickel-metal hydride batteries, hydrogen fuel cells, rewritable CDs, DVD optical discs, flat-screen liquid crystal displays, and much more.  Sadly, he passed away at the age of 89 from prostate cancer on October 17th.

Most folks do not know that he was the innovative scientist behind the battery technology widely used today in laptop computers, digital cameras, cell phones, and hybrid gas-electric cars.  He was a genius.

We first met “Stan” in 2001 as the man behind the solar panel manufacturing company called Uni-Solar.  He opened two high-tech manufacturing facilities in our town (in 2002 and 2006) across from The Palace of Auburn Hills.  

We were so proud he chose to invest in our community.  Both sides of the political scale came to tour Uni-Solar’s promising “green technology” plants; most notably former President George W. Bush visited in February 2006.

Uni-Solar made thin, rugged solar panels which converted sunlight to electricity.  The panels were designed to be placed on the rooftops of homes and commercial buildings.

The company ran huge rolls of stainless steel through machines the length of a football field to create the product which looked like camera film.  It was absolutely amazing cutting edge technology, but extremely expensive to manufacture. 

Uni-Solar’s goal was to place these thin-film solar panels on buildings around the world.  It was their mission to provide an alternative to fossil fuel.  Unfortunately, they could not sell enough of their product (primarily due to the Great Recession) to offset production costs and closed this past Spring.  Simply, the risk of innovation.

Many believe that our homes and automobiles will be powered in the future by the technologies Mr. Ovshinsky pioneered.  He was literally a century ahead of his time. 

So, we encourage you to read this New York Times article (click here) about Mr. Stanford R. Ovshinsky.  He was truly a great man who changed the world.