Bright Future in Sun Power by Hunter Bishop

August 15, 2003 – Hawai’i Tribune Herald

Hilo, Hawaii – A little more than a month ago, ProVision Technologies Inc. was a part of Hawaii Electric Industries, Hawaii’s third-largest business.

Today, ProVision Technologies is a fledgling two-man shop.

HEI, owner of the electric utilities on Oahu, Maui and the Big Island, as well as American Savings Bank, decided to seek a new course in renewable energy and wanted to dissolve ProVision after operating it for three years.

But Marco Mangelsdorf, a former employee of the high-tech, solar-powered electricity provider, saw a wellspring of potential he thought he could tap. He negotiated an agreement to buy ProVision and run it independently of HEI.

Mangelsdorf was first offered a job with HEI’s new venture, investing in renewable energy products, but he wanted to keep ProVision Technology moving forward. I didn’t want to give up the progress that we had made, Mangelsdorf said.

At his office in an industrial warehouse on Railroad Avenue, Mangelsdorf showed a visitor photos of the first net metering electrical system installed on the Big Island at a Hamakua Coast home in 2001. Net metering is when an electricity consumer provides enough solar power to meet his residential needs, while selling excess power produced from the solar generator back to the utility company.

Instead of paying an electricity bill, they send you a check, Mangelsdorf said.

Mangelsdorf, who started working for ProVision when HEI started the company in 2000, invited his junior high school chum from California, Douglas Bath, to be his partner when he sought to buy the company.

Mangelsdorf and Bath spent nearly three months in negotiations with the corporate lawyers and ended up owning the property with a modest investment. HEI, which was content to let the company fade away, was mostly interested in shielding itself from liability, he said. Terms of the sale are confidential but beneficial to both sides.