July 31, 2025

Why Guarding Basic Infrastructure Is Hurting the Clean Energy Revolution

Imagine if every car manufacturer built their own kind of wheel—and refused to share it. You’d have a traffic jam of innovation. That’s what’s happening in today’s energy sector.

Liam, a product manager at Sol-Ark and co-sponsor of Energy IoT Open Source (EIOT), puts it bluntly: “Everyone’s guarding their ‘IP,’ but they’re really guarding the 80 to 90 percent of stuff everyone has to build anyway.”

We’re talking about basic building blocks—data protocols, metering tools, hardware-software communication. Instead of collaborating, companies hoard them like trade secrets, slowing progress when we need acceleration.


🔧 Proving the Model at SF Climate Week

Liam rolled up his sleeves at the Open Source Energy Hackathon during SF Climate Week (April 2025), teaming up with students and developers using open hardware kits from NESL.energy and IEEE Smart Village. Together, they rapidly prototyped solutions that could be field-deployed—not next year, but now.

The takeaway? When industry pros, volunteers, and students work on open tools side by side, real innovation happens—fast.


🔒 The Cost of Proprietary Lock-In

When every device speaks a different language, integration becomes a nightmare. Engineers burn months getting systems to “talk.” Companies reinvent the same tools instead of collaborating.

It’s like if every restaurant invented its own kind of fork.

This might fly in legacy industries, but in a climate crisis? It’s an avoidable bottleneck we can’t afford.


🤝 Open Infrastructure Is the Fix

That’s where Liam’s partnership with EIOT makes a difference.

At Sol-Ark, Liam’s team builds next-gen hybrid inverters. Instead of rebuilding the same backend plumbing, they leverage EIOT’s open tools and standardized infrastructure to plug and play—faster.

EIOT is building the foundations so others can focus on innovation, not integration.


🔄 Innovate Where It Matters

Sure, companies need to protect their competitive edge—but let’s draw the line more wisely. Share the basics. Compete on excellence.

If we all have to build the same road before we can even start driving, none of us are going anywhere fast.


⚡ The Future Is Open

The clean energy revolution isn’t a solo project—it’s a networked movement. And movements move faster when the foundations are open, shareable, and trusted.

Let’s stop hoarding the tools we all need. Let’s build the infrastructure—together.


🔍 See It for Yourself

Join us for a tour of our Microgrid Open Source Lab at Port Labs in Oakland, CA and experience the future in action.

📅 Upcoming Tour Dates
🕞 Tours run from 3:30 PM to 5:30 PM


🌱 Help keep this movement alive.
Support our mission at eiot.energy

#CleanEnergy #OpenSourceInfrastructure #ClimateTech #EIOT #IoTStandards