Michael Valerino, the Co-Founder and CEO of Durham-based Solar Unsoiled.
Led by Duke Environmental Engineering PhD grad Michael Valerino, Durham-based Solar Unsoiled is building a brighter future for solar energy by optimizing an oft-neglected but nonetheless important process: cleaning solar panels.
With an undergraduate chemical engineering degree and an interest in the environment from his farm-grown upbringing in Maryland horse country, Valerino first heard about the possible negative impacts of dirty solar panels during his grad school interview with Duke Professor Mike Bergin, who saw cloudy solar panels at a site where he was studying air pollution in India.
Valerino didn’t know much about solar panels back in 2016, but he knew the project had the potential to combine his passions for clean air, clean energy and chemistry. Soon, he was all in.
“The issue of solar…