Do Not Buy a Solar Panel From James McKirdy

McKirdy now selling “Tesla Coils” in addition to 50-percent-efficiency solar panels. Mug shot included.

Eric Wesoff December 20, 2012

Eric Wesoff

Editor-at-Large
Greentech Media

Eric Wesoff is Editor-at-Large at Greentech Media. Prior to joining GTM, Eric Wesoff founded Sage Marketing Partners in 2000 to provide sales and marketing-consulting services to venture-capital firms and their portfolio companies in the alternative energy and telecommunications sectors. Mr. Wesoff has become a well-known, respected authority and speaker in these fields.

His expertise covers solar power, fuel cells, biofuels and advanced batteries. His strengths are in market research and analysis, business development and due diligence for investors. He frequently consults for energy startups and Silicon Valley's premier venture capitalists.

We've reported on the antics of solar bounder James McKirdy, age 66, since early 2011. In the years that we've been reporting on him, he's been accused of bilking tens of thousands of dollars from solar panel consumers who have partnered with him or tried to buy McKirdy's mythical solar panels. We have heard from well-meaning realtors, investors, installers -- all who have been on the receiving end of the McKirdy solar scam.

Below is a recent photo of James Archer McKirdy of Off Grid Solar in the arrest records of Florida's Volusia County Corrections Office from a November 27 booking. This arrest is not necessarily connected with McKirdy's solar business -- we're working on getting at those records.

More recently McKirdy has been selling "Tesla Coils." People are buying the Tesla Coils along with these claims:

Refer to previous articles for more details, but here's the gist:

McKirdy and Off Grid Solar claim to be using a technology which provides solar panels with better than 50 percent efficiencies. McKirdy has claimed that his solar development company has orders for 850 megawatts of his NXGen solar panels.
The firm claims that the panels are "not adversely affected by temperature; the operational window is between -300º & +600º Fahrenheit. This makes them highly effective even in extremely hot or cold conditions, since energy is produced at a consistent rate."
In an article in the Sun Sentinel from March 2010, McKirdy said he received "a $400 million order for panels from a firm developing solar energy farms and has agreements with distributors to help market his product in Tennessee and Texas."
Earlier this year, we received reports of him promoting his company to PREPA, a utility in Puerto Rico, and to interests in Arizona.
An Off Grid Solar document includes a list of projects "under development and contract": "At the end of the 2012 year, Off Grid Solar intends to be in a position to bring to market over 800mW [sic] of annual production. This would make OGS the largest completely American owned and operated solar module producer."
McKirdy has also claimed that DuPont is making the panels for his firm. We've contacted DuPont -- and its Apollo solar subsidiary is not a supplier of product to Off Grid Solar.

The only due diligence McKirdy's victims had to perform was a Google search. Hopefully, this article helps inform potential victims. Do not engage in solar business with Jim McKirdy -- his technical and business claims are suspect.