ZeroFossil Energy Outfitters powers up with renewable sources
Steven Kovacik was working in the plastics industry, helping a wind turbine builder source its components locally, when he arrived at a realization about renewable energy sources.
“Nobody was focusing on small, tangible products for homes,” said Kovacik, 38, of Brentwood, a chemical engineer. “To get the paradigm to shift to renewables, it has to be tangible. You need to run a fridge off of it.”
Ten years later, the company he founded to push that shift further, ZeroFossil Energy Outfitters, is helping people run everything from home refrigerators to outdoor concert festivals off renewable sources.
Working from facilities in Munhall and West Homestead, ZeroFossil manufactures and installs batteries and solar-powered systems for homes and businesses to harness off-the-grid electricity, and rents out systems to power events such as the Thrival festival last month and the Maker Faire Pittsburgh this weekend.
“It seemed to be a perfect fit for Maker Faire because of their commitment to sustainable energy,” said Donna Goyak, director of the showcase of artisans, engineers and inventors set for Saturday and Sunday at three North Side locations. “It fits quite well with the whole ‘Maker' ethos.”
Kovacik started ZeroFossil in 2012 with the goal of filling a niche: “providing clean, sustainable energy where grid power wasn't available.”
In many cases, though, customers have access to normal power sources but would rather tap ZeroFossil's solar-powered batteries or generators that run on used vegetable oil from restaurants.
The company this year started offering related services for large events, such as sound engineering and lighting specialists.
The evolution of ZeroFossil's mission has led to huge growth. Kovacik doubled the staff to 12 employees this year, plus a crew of contractors that can grow to 20 on busy weekends. Last year, the company provided power to 75 events; It expects to handle 125 this year.
Kovacik said the company turned its first profit last year. Although he declined to give specific sales numbers, he predicted sales would quadruple this year over last.
It's come without spending a dime on advertising.
“All of the employees and all the events have found me,” Kovacik said, noting that each large event ZeroFossil powers sparks word-of-mouth marketing for the next.
Regular customers include several food trucks that don't want to idle engines to maintain power, Tree Pittsburgh's nursery in Lawrenceville and the Rivers of Steel's Carrie Furnaces site in Rankin.
“It really swung the doors open to shed more light on what can be done at the site, and it's allowed us to do bigger events,” said Ron Baraff, director of museum collection and archives at Rivers of Steel, which preserves and leads tours at the former U.S. Steel blast furnaces. ZeroFossil installed several arrays to provide lighting and other power to the site, which was cut off from the grid when it closed more than 35 years ago.
Every piece of equipment available to customers runs off the grid — from 1,200 watt-hour JuiceBox batteries that are about the size of a dormitory room refrigerator to a 55,000-watt-hour converted car trailer mounted with solar panels on three sides. The batteries charge in the sun through the week to prepare for big events.
The vehicles used to tow or deliver the equipment run on biofuel, much of it collected from local restaurants in the form of used cooking oil and filtered at the West Homestead garage.
“It's a nice symbiotic relationship we have with other businesses,” Kovacik said.
He sees part of the service ZeroFossil provides as education.
“You have to think through how much power you'll be using,” said Steve Smith, 40, of Forest Hills, who joined the company in March as a sound technician. Making sure a band playing at an outside festival will have the right level of electricity is a very different game from wiring a gig in a bar, “where you might just flip some breakers,” he said.
Customers learn about their energy use and find ways to be more efficient when tapping an alternative source, Kovacik said.
“Ours is a very complex event with more than 200 ‘makers' with varying power needs,” Goyak said of the Maker Faire, which will stretch across the Children's Museum, Buhl Community Park and Nova Place at the former Allegheny Center. “They're helping us figure out the best way to lay things out and get folks the power they need.”
Plus, she noted, using batteries and biofuels “eliminates the need for the loud, smelly generators you see at so many events.”
State park officials who saw ZeroFossil in action at Point State Park have asked the company to power a large event at Presque Isle in Erie next August. Kovacik sees an opening for a full expansion of the business to Erie and then to State College of Cleveland.
He's working on a version of his solar “power tower” system that would be smaller but pack more juice, ready to hitch up to any vehicle for use in the most remote locations. That's the product he would like to take national.
“It would be the answer to all portable energy needs,” he said.
David Conti is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at 412-388-5802 or dconti@tribweb.com.
