SUNRNR Offers Solar+Storage Disaster Relief Option

HARRISONBURG, VA. (October 27, 2015)—SUNRNR of Virginia, Inc., a Shenandoah Valley-based portable solar+storage generator company, is making news in areas hit hard by weather events, particularly during the 2015 hurricane season. Crooked Island in the southern Bahamas islands received a SUNRNR (SunRunner), temporarily donated by distributor CleanWaterSolutions, to provide power at the Colonel Hill airport terminal where a makeshift health clinic was set up following Hurricane Joaquin. The SUNRNR will provide lighting and critical refrigeration for medical supplies like insulin.

Photo credit: Tribune242.com

SUNRNR has made significant progress towards expanding the export of the locally manufactured portable units in recent months. After participating in a White House briefing with President Obama and senior Administration officials during a Small Business Exporters Roundtable in March, and being the featured company from Virginia in a joint project of the Office of US Trade Representative and the Department of Commerce titled “United States of Trade: 50 Stories in 50 States that Show the Impact of Trade Across the Nation,” SUNRNR is positioned to add more countries like the Bahamas to the existing list of Canada, Japan and several African countries they have been servicing. 

Working with the Virginia/DC District Export Council along with the Virginia Economic Development Partnership, the company’s president is scheduled to attend a trade mission trip to Spain’s Canary Islands off the coast of West Africa Nov 16-20. SUNRNR applied for and was selected to join the trade mission aimed at helping U.S. firms in the energy, environmental technologies, industrial equipment and supplies, infrastructure and logistics sectors find partners from the Canary Islands and other regions of Spain to sell products and services in West Africa. Companies participating in the trip will also learn about the advantages of setting up an operation in the Canary Islands to pursue opportunities in West Africa.  This trip fits hand-in-hand with Governor McAuliffe’s new VITAL program, the Virginia STEP grant, and the Obama Administration’s Doing Business in Africa and Power Africa initiatives.

In addition to the devastation from Hurricane Joaquin, severe weather events worldwide such as #HurricanePatricia and #TyphoonKoppu emphasize a growing need for alternative power options around the world. The Canaries have faced a number of severe weather events as well, the most recent causing wide-spread school closures due to flash flooding from torrential rain. SUNRNR could provide important emergency power supplies during times of natural disaster in remote locations.

Information about SUNRNR products can be found at www.sunrnr.com or by contacting Jenny French at jennyf@sunrnr.com or Scott French at scottf@sunrnr.com, 540.271.3403.

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