A solar power entrepreneur makes it his business to help
Days after Hurricane Ida slammed into Louisiana in August 2021, Paul Shmotolokha followed the Grammy-winning band Lost Bayou Ramblers as the musicians rode through devastated neighborhoods on a flatbed trailer. He watched with wonder as the group’s morale-boosting traveling concert lured residents out of damaged homes for tunes, dancing, and refreshments.
His company’s solar battery units provided the juice for the musicians’ amplifiers and instruments, and powered community Wi-Fi and charging stations that helped thousands of people reconnect with loved ones. “It gave me a buzz about how much you can directly impact people,” Shmotolokha says. “It was my first experience working with NGOs [nongovernmental organizations] in the field to help people, not make money.”
As chief executive of a solar energy company, Shmotolokha has enjoyed long careers in telecommunications and renewable energy that started with building cable TV markets and progressed to supplying portable power units. He credits much of his success and interest in serving others to the year he spent in Chile in 1991 as a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar. “I can’t emphasize enough how formative that year was,” he says. “It started my journey of being able to learn to walk in somebody else’s shoes.”
A past Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar, Paul Shmotolokha is CEO of a company that provides solar-powered generators in disaster situations.
Image credit: Grant Hindsley
Shmotolokha grew up in Thousand Oaks, California, and was a member of his school’s Interact club. His parents told him many stories about their flight from Ukraine during World War II, which influenced his decision to study international relations at Georgetown University, focusing on Soviet history and U.S. Cold War policies.
During his senior year at Georgetown, he learned about Rotary scholarships and applied through the Rotary Club of Westlake Village in California. He chose the Institute of International Studies at the University of Chile in Santiago because it allowed him to use his fluency in Spanish and continue studying international relations involving Latin America. He joined four other scholars hosted by the Rotary Club of Santiago, traveling frequently.
He had many opportunities to spar with fellow students who didn’t share his worldview. The courses were dialogue-focused, with group discussion daily. “I listened to views that opened my mind and learned to see from a non-U.S. perspective,” he says.
He had funding for only one year of a two-year master’s program, so he joined his father and brother in scouting business opportunities in a newly independent Ukraine. For the next several years, he helped introduce paid satellite television in former Soviet bloc countries. “They were thirsty for knowledge, and with satellite, we could bring it anywhere,” he says.
Shmotolokha (center), a U.S. Army veteran, in Panama for joint exercises, and (second from right) with fellow scholars in Chile. Courtesy of Paul Shmotolokha.
In 1996, he was recruited by Metromedia International Telecommunications, a U.S. company owned by television mogul John Kluge, to lead a group tasked with launching low-cost wireless cable TV to multi-family apartments in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and, later, Kyrgyzstan.
Central Asia was a new experience. “I learned quickly that you have to respect the culture to succeed,” he says. “Otherwise, they will block you. That’s what happened to my predecessors. They came in with arrogance. I went in with great humility, which I had learned as a scholar.”
In 2003, he transitioned from expanding telecommunications empires to selling equipment to them. In Bellingham, Washington, he headed a unit at Alpha Technologies, which manufactured power systems for broadband and telecommunications companies.
Again, his scholarship and education helped. “I’d sit across the table from Brazilians, and I’d understand their issues,” he says. “I took my experience as a Rotary scholar and grew the business thirtyfold.”
Providing solar generators to Ukraine
Alpha Technologies eventually acquired OutBack Power, a leading brand in off-grid solar power, which became part of a division that Shmotolokha oversaw. The portable battery systems he was selling used lead acid. But Shmotolokha started to watch the emerging lithium iron phosphate technology and knew the time had come to shift. Lithium can perform in hot environments, is lighter, and lasts longer.
Paul Shmotolokha
- Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar, University of Chile, 1991
- Executive development program, London Business School, 2001
- Telecommunications executive leadership program, Tuck School of Business, Dartmouth College, 2018
In 2019, he launched his own company, New Use Energy, which supplies solar and battery generators. The lightweight units can be charged by solar panels, generators, or through the electric grid and moved to remote locations to supply hours of power.
Solar generators have advantages over those powered by gas. Fuel to run gas generators can be scarce in disaster situations or difficult to transport to remote areas. The generators themselves can be dangerous due to the risk of carbon monoxide poisoning or engine fires that can happen when spilling gas on a hot engine. They emit significant noise and air pollution as well. After Hurricane Laura hit Louisiana and Texas in 2020, more people died from carbon monoxide poisoning than from the hurricane itself.
The company’s major clients come from the telecommunications, emergency management, and film industries. Shmotolokha got in touch with disaster relief agencies, which eventually led him back to Rotary. Heidi Rickels, a Rotarian in Montana, contacted him looking for better generators for a project she was launching to provide portable power for Ukrainian hospitals with the help of the Rotary clubs of Kharkiv New Level, Ukraine, and Evergreen, Colorado.
“It was a serendipitous moment,” recalls Rickels. “I was driving home in the freezing cold in Montana, thinking of the plight of people in Ukraine enduring a bitter cold winter without power. I did a search for Ukraine and solar generators, and up came Paul and his organization. He has been absolutely amazing to work with.”
Shmotolokha hopes to expand his connections with Rotary clubs. Meanwhile, he continues to draw inspiration from his year in Chile and remains in touch with other scholars from the program. “We always talk about how it changed us,” he says.
This story originally appeared in the August 2024 issue of Rotary magazine.