One of his youthful proteges describes Eric Jensen as the godfather of solar energy in Alberta. Or is it the grandfather?

Jensen, a professional engineer, doesn't lay claim to either title, though he appreciates the compliment.

"I guess if you keep working away at something long enough, you become the godfather," says Jensen, a broad smile creasing his genial features.

"It's true, though. I've been fascinated by solar power since the first day I saw it work."

Larry MacDougal, Business Edge
Eric Jensen of Sunmotor International found that solar-powered units outlasted windmills in remote locations.

As president of Sunmotor International Ltd., based in Olds, Jensen has been bringing solar solutions to the oilpatch for the last half-dozen years, with little fanfare but plenty of success. Companies such as EnCana Corp. and Enerplus Resources Fund rely on his solar-powered pumps to clear up environmentally unfriendly brine spills in faraway places.

Maybe it's because he was a country kid who grew up in an electricity-free zone, a farm lit by coal-oil lanterns and a wood stove. Jensen has a healthy respect for the energy and muscle strength required to pump enough water to slake the thirst of a family and a small cattle herd.

"Nothing glamorous about the lifestyle, I'll tell you," he says.

But now, Jensen can tool out to a wellsite in remote wilderness, set up his 12-volt solar panels, a battery pack, a small direct-current motor and sealed submersible pumps, hop in his truck and drive away.

He knows there's nothing to worry about, not for 25 years or so. His mechanism requires zero maintenance and the simple but trusty two-horsepower engine will keep on chugging until freeze-up, even though the nearest electrical outlet is 45 kilometres away.

"Our system leaches the brine out of the soil into a culvert and our solar pump forces it into a holding tank," Jensen says.

Simple, eh? It's also cheap like borscht and works like a charm. All the customer has to do is ... well, nothing. Over time, the holding tank steadily fills with brine, even on cloudy days. When the 400-barrel tank reaches capacity, it's time to remove it and re-inject the contents beneath the earth's surface, in accordance with the directives of government regulators.

"In the old days, companies weren't really pumping out their brine spills. They'd channel it into a culvert and come around once in a while and slurp it out with a vacuum truck," mutters Jensen.

"That's really not doing any good. Companies understand that now."

An agricultural engineer by training, and a life member of the Association of Professional Engineers, Geologists and Geophysicists of Alberta (APEGGA), Jensen kind of backed into his mild obsession with solar power.

During the early 1980s, he helped set up a Lethbridge pilot project designed to evaluate the effectiveness of wind as a power source for drainage pumps.

"We were looking for ways to remove water from farmers' fields without running in power," Jensen recalls. "A lot of these sites were quite remote."

Windmills worked OK, but when an innovative Saskatoon engineering firm suggested Jensen should experiment with a solar power source, the advantages of the new method soon became apparent. The solar package was cheaper and more durable, with no moving parts (except the pump). But the windmills showed their age after about two years.

Things just sort of escalated from there. And Jensen's interest grew. Today Sunmotor International is able to generate about $500,000 in revenue during a good year.

He has also branched out into humanitarian work, collaborating with the Canadian Geological Survey on a solar-powered reverse osmosis water-treatment system for a tiny farming community in northeast Brazil.

"Keeping kids healthy," he says. "There are two billion people in the developing world drinking bad water."

Similar projects have gone forward in El Salvador. Meanwhile, Jensen is also exploring opportunities in China and the Philippines.

At the moment, he's working with an engineering firm called Komex International, trying to sell energy companies on solar-powered pumps as a means for removing water from far-flung shallow gas deposits. He has already teamed with Calgary's Oak Environmental Inc., using the sun's rays to power a soil vapour extraction system for EnCana in the Drumheller district.

"It ran happily for six years with only one change of motor brushes. That was a wonderful contract," sighs Jensen, who likes to kid that he's a lazy loafer disguised as a businessman.

"All I had to do was go out once a month to write numbers in a book, just to show them it was still performing."

(Tom Keyser can be reached at keyser@businessedge.ca)