by Clarence Oxford
Los Angeles CA (SPX) Feb 08, 2026
Solar engineer and ABC Solar founder Brad Bartz will deliver a keynote-style talk titled “The Palos Verdes Landslide: Who Turned the Power Back On?” during an upcoming community event at AltaSea at the Port of Los Angeles on March 14, 2026. The presentation blends scientific storytelling with real-world engineering experience, exploring how fundamental physics principles translate into resilient energy solutions.
Bartz, who founded ABC Solar more than 25 years ago, is known for emphasizing practical deployment of solar and battery technologies under challenging conditions. His upcoming talk begins with a surprising starting point: quantum mechanics.
“Solar power begins with a quantized energy transfer event – what I call a microscopic fist fight between light and matter,” Bartz explains. “Billions of these tiny interactions happen every second, and together they create the electricity that powers our homes.”
The presentation traces the scientific lineage from Max Planck’s introduction of energy quanta to Albert Einstein’s explanation of the photoelectric effect – the phenomenon that makes photovoltaic electricity possible. Bartz uses analogies ranging from chocolate milk separation to ping-pong ball photons to help audiences visualize complex physical processes.
But the central narrative moves beyond theory.
The talk draws heavily on Bartz’s firsthand experience during the Palos Verdes landslide, where widespread infrastructure disruptions created urgent demand for alternative power solutions. According to Bartz, the crisis revealed both the limitations of traditional generators and the potential of mobile solar battery systems.
“We learned that power doesn’t just need to be generated – power needs to move,” he said.
That lesson led to the development of Rolling Battery, a mobile solar energy platform designed to rapidly deploy clean power to homes and facilities without trenching or fuel supply chains. During early deployments, Bartz reports that mobile solar systems restored power to multiple residences within a single day, demonstrating a new model for distributed energy resilience.
The concept has since evolved into ongoing installations at AltaSea itself, where portable solar battery systems are currently supporting tenants navigating grid interconnection and permitting timelines. Bartz notes that the success of mobile energy solutions on land has inspired a maritime vision as well.
His talk will introduce the concept of Floating Battery – a distributed energy platform designed to support the growing adoption of electric boats by providing bidirectional charging capability and daisy-chainable power networks across harbor environments.
“Electric vessels are coming, but charging infrastructure remains the bottleneck,” Bartz said. “Floating energy systems can help bridge that gap while providing emergency power resilience for coastal communities.”
AltaSea’s existing rooftop solar installation, consisting of approximately 3,000 panels connected directly to the grid, serves as a real-time demonstration of distributed renewable energy integration. Bartz emphasizes that although the system feeds power into the broader utility network, local buildings are effectively powered by sunlight through grid flow dynamics.
The presentation concludes with a broader philosophical message linking quantum-scale energy interactions to community-scale resilience.
“The landslide didn’t just move land,” Bartz said. “It moved power – and once power can move, everything changes.”
About AltaSea at the Port of Los Angeles
AltaSea is a public-private ocean innovation campus focused on sustainability, marine science, and blue-economy technology development.
About Brad Bartz: Brad Bartz is founder of ABC Solar Incorporated, a renewable energy engineering company specializing in solar and battery systems for residential, commercial, and resilience-focused deployments.
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