Founder

Penn State Engineering. He failed ROTC, bought a motorcycle, and traveled.

Mexico, employed by Ingeniero Eduardo Saucedo. Designed vacuum concrete handling equipment and managed installation crews.

Formed Kenin Associates, Inc. 'Youth Concept' Philadelphia agency. Clients: Newport Music Festivals, Martin Guitars, Schmidt’s Beer, Crawdaddy Magazine, BMW Motorcycles.

Allen Ginsberg speaker at 1st Earth Day in Philadelphia convinced Kenin to 'Go find solar.' Fortunately, early solar notable Steve Baer invited Kenin to work with him in Albuquerque. By 1973, Steve Baer and the ancient Anasazi Cliff Dwellings at Mesa Verde convinced Kenin that Passive Solar was and will be 'The technology of evolution.'

Formed Solar Room Co. Taos, NM to test prototype solar greenhouse collectors. Received 3 DOE Contracts and an AIA Design Award. LANL managed the contracts.

J. Douglas Balcomb, LANL’s Solar Group Leader, reported Kenin’s work 'one of the most significant passive research and development projects in the country.' DOE invited Kenin to DC to ask New Mexico Senators Harrison Schmidt and Pete Domenici to support the educational Solar Tax Credits 1.0. They both became Sponsors.

Solar Room Co. was renamed Solar Resources, Inc. It was financially supported by local investors, the DOE, and SR Kenin Contractors. Solar Room production facility was built, staffed, and managed. Astronaut Senator (Jack) Schmidt joined the Board. Jack became the product spokesman, and it became profitable during test marketing. Hundreds of Solar Room® kits were shipped as people enjoyed its unique concept and affordable design.

Kenin was invited by DOE to the Solar Venture Capital Conference at UC Santa Cruz. He asked VCs to participate. They said, 'How do you monetize it? There is no money in passive!' That is what the Category, Passive Solar Retrofit, looks like to VCs and the DOE.

Solar Room Co became profitable, thanks to Board Member and product spokesperson Harrison Schmidt. Our moon-walking Astronaut Jack Schmitt was successful in introducing the Solar Room’s unique concept and affordable design.

Solar Resources, Inc. fell victim to the Solar Tax Credit 1.0 under President Reagan. There had been no solar market until the feds supported its development.

With a growing family to support, Kenin ended his Passive Solar R&D and worked for 30+ years as a General Contractor, Home Inspector, and Green Subdivision developer. He built five passive homes and consulted with hundreds of home buyers. At 7000 feet elevation, Taos has about the same heating requirements as Chicago.

Founded the 54-acre green subdivision of affordable and market rate housing, including a 30-acre conservation easement.

Retired from Home Inspection to introduce Solar Rooms® to photovoltaic distributors. They had no interest. One said, 'Passive is passé.' www.solarroom.com - YouTube

VC Steve Jarvetson inspired Kenin’s 'eureka' moment by exclaiming, 'There’s no interest in passive.' From that thought evolved Kenin’s novel concept, Universal Solar Thermal Cladding®, a retrofit solar collection system in kit form for heating existing buildings.

Kenin started designing a second Passive Solar Retrofit Collector. Its patent was approved in 2024, 50 years after Solar Room® had become a Mature Solar Technology.

Kenin designed a Solar Thermal System Prototype. Solar Thermal Kits that can be assembled and installed on any sunny area of a home or big-box store and circulate the heat inside. Global emissions were 36.3 billion tons of CO2 in 2021, IEA reported. Buildings provided about 30% of those emissions. At scale, how many gigatons of CO2 would buildings decarbonize using solar thermal heating?

Solar Bubble Collector Kits® (their affectionate name). As they are being installed, they should stimulate additional solar thermal retrofit designs by architects and engineers for multi-story buildings, hopefully well before 2030. Kenin presented at ASES SOLAR 2022 American Solar Energy Society National Conference. 'Solar Thermal Heating of Existing Buildings.' Springer Link published the paper internationally.

Solar Thermal Cladding, LLC, received a NMSBA Grant from LANL, thanks to Taos Mayor, Pascual Maestas’ Office. LANL’s Gary Goddard, PE, instrumented and thermally tested Solar Room® last winter. This year he will test the effectiveness of our 2024 solar thermal system [Patent 11,898,778: Passive Retrofit Solar Thermal Cladding Structure®] on a number of types of Taos homes and buildings and collect their data. Solar Thermal Cladding is also an inflated tension structure system. Think of it as a Solar Tinkertoy™ because it can be installed in any shape required by the sunny location—as a Solar Room™ or a Solar Bubble Collector™.

Taos Solar Resources, Inc became a Non-Profit Corp, hoping to appeal to young people. Climate change is at the forefront of Gen Z’s minds. Their futures require decarbonization!