Multiple patent winner, James Wolter, a retired professor from Grand Valley State University and avid inventor, received a second patent on Feb. 2 for his latest invention. This invention is crucial to combatting what he calls “dirty power practices” and creating a sustainable way to use energy.

With two patents already won and two being examined by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Wolter has had tremendous success with his developments, all aimed at creating healthier energy, using it more efficiently, and making it more accessible to people all over the world. His first patent was received on Sept. 15, 2015 and the most recent one directly correlates with the first.

“The primary reason for a patent is to teach a better method of doing something,” Wolter said.

Wolter has been interested in physics, building and engineering since he was young. After graduating from Indiana State University with a degree in physics, he worked at General Electric Co. as a physicist, eventually becoming a sales engineer.

After that, Wolter became an adjunct professor for both Michigan State University and GVSU as a business and marketing professor.

“I was teaching at night for an adjunct professor, and I had more fun during those six hours than the prior nine hours in the office,” Wolter said.

In 1987, Wolter received tenure from GVSU and got promoted to associate professor. He specialized in planned innovations and was teaching both undergraduate and graduate students the elements of marketing and the best ways to use technology.

Wolter’s skills and experiences with physics, engineering, and building devices to help create cleaner energy led Wolter to file his first patent. As an expert in solar power energy, he has developed a series of methods to use clean energy and control the way it is made and distributed. Wolter’s first patented invention is called the Solar24, Patent 9136732.

“We have lots of power, but it’s not clean,” Wolter said. “It is alleged that consequences of how we make and use energy is affecting weather – global warming.”

Photovoltaic (PV) solar panels are an effective way to use solar energy as a primary energy source.

“They don’t wear out, there are no moving parts, there is no pollution, and it doesn’t negatively affect the environment.”

Along with the solar panels are energy saving batteries that allow consumers to harness the sun’s energy during the day so it can be used at a later time, when that energy is not accessible.

“The problem with PV panels is that the only source of energy, the sun, goes down. Once the sun goes down, the power goes out. It can give you 24 hours of sun,” Wolter said.

The most recent patent, Patent 9252311, was directly designed to help with his prior invention. Wolter created a cheaper way to mount the solar panels used for the PV panels.

“This will allow (the first) patent to be mounted economically,” Wolter said. “It is cheaper to put up solar panels today than it is to put up a new coal plant.”

In 2010, Wolter retired to create Energy Partners, a research and production lab at GVSU’s Michigan Alternative Renewable Energy Company (MAREC) Center. This lab is where all the current inventions are being done.

Wolter has won two patents, has two more patents waiting to be examined, along with two that are currently being processed.

“There are over nine million patents, and more than half never become successful,” Wolter said.

Wolter fully intends to make sure his products get utilized and to see his dream of clean energy come to fruition. Wolter’s has high hopes for a future with cleaner air and sustainable energy.