Founder

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

Mexico, employed by Ingeniero Eduardo Saucedo. Kenin designed vacuum concrete handling equipment and managed Saucedo’s building crews. He had previously worked for Jacob Creskoff, President of Vacuum Concrete Corporation of America.

He moved back to Philly and formed Kenin Associates: The 'Youth Concept' Philadelphia Agency, which grew out of the Philadelphia Folk Workshop, a music store he inherited from his brother Eliot. Clients included Newport Music Festivals, Martin Guitars, Schmidt’s Beer, Crawdaddy Magazine, and BMW Motorcycles.

Allen Ginsberg, speaker at the 1st Earth Day in Philadelphia, convinced Kenin to 'Go find solar.' Early solar notable Steve Baer invited Kenin to work with him at Zomeworks in Albuquerque.

Kenin visited the Anasazi Cliff Dwellings at Mesa Verde and saw that they were solar heated, inspiring his belief in passive solar as 'the technology of evolution.' He developed the theory that modern materials could adapt ancient principles to heat homes.

He formed the Solar Room Co. in Taos, NM to develop prototype solar greenhouse collectors. He received three DOE Contracts and an AIA Design Award.

Dr. J. Douglas Balcomb of LANL managed the project, which included help from Kit Carson Electric Coop. Balcomb called Kenin’s work 'one of the most significant passive research and development projects in the country.' DOE invited Kenin to Washington, D.C., where he successfully lobbied NM Senators Harrison (Jack) Schmidt and Pete Domenici to sponsor Solar Tax Credits 1.0.

Solar Room Co. was renamed Solar Resources, Inc., financially supported by local investors, the DOE, and SR Kenin General Contractors. A production facility was built and staffed. Astronaut Senator Harrison Schmidt joined the Board and became the company's spokesman. Hundreds of Solar Room® kits were sold and shipped.

Kenin was invited by DOE to the Solar Venture Capital Conference at UC Santa Cruz. When he asked VCs to participate, they responded, 'How do you monetize it? There is no money in Passive Solar Retrofit.'

Solar Room Co. became profitable, largely thanks to spokesman Harrison Schmidt. His visibility helped promote the Solar Room's innovative and affordable concept.

Solar Resources, Inc. went bankrupt after the cancellation of Solar Tax Credits under President Reagan. There had been no passive solar market until the DOE had supported its development.

With a growing family, Kenin ended his Passive Solar R&D and spent the next 30+ years as a General Contractor and Home Inspector. He built five passive homes and consulted with many home buyers.

Kenin founded a 54-acre green subdivision with affordable and market-rate housing, including a 30-acre conservation easement.

He retired from Home Inspection to introduce Solar Rooms® to photovoltaic distributors, who showed no interest. VC Steve Jarvetson inspired Kenin’s 'eureka' moment by saying, 'There’s no interest in passive.' This led to the creation of Universal Solar Thermal Cladding®, a retrofit solar collection system in kit form.

Kenin began designing his second Passive Solar Retrofit Collector. The patent was approved in 2024, almost 50 years after the Solar Room® concept was introduced.

He designed Solar Thermal Cladding Kits, modular systems that can be installed on any sunny area of a home or big-box store to circulate heat indoors. With buildings accounting for ~30% of the 36.3 billion tons of global CO2 emissions (IEA), solar thermal heating could help decarbonize significantly.

Affectionately called Solar Bubble Collector Kits®, the systems aim to stimulate further solar thermal retrofit innovations for multi-story buildings before 2030. Kenin presented at ASES SOLAR 2022. His paper, 'Solar Thermal Heating of Existing Buildings,' was published internationally by Springer Link. He received invitations to speak globally, though not in the U.S.

Solar Thermal Cladding, LLC, received an NMSBA Grant from LANL, with support from Taos Mayor Pascual Maestas’ office. LANL’s Gary Goddard, PE, thermally tested Solar Room® and began evaluating the new 2024 solar thermal system across Taos homes.

Taos Solar Resources, Inc. became a Non-Profit Corp. aimed at appealing to young environmentalists and foundations. Gen Z sees climate change as urgent, and decarbonization as vital to their future. The 2024 patented system, Retrofit Solar Thermal Cladding Structure®, was also tested. The modular system resembles a Solar Tinkertoy™—installable in many forms like Solar Rooms™ or Solar Bubble Collectors™.