Path Power — Innovation + Impact 

What problem is Path Power solving?

We're developing a fluid-free, steerable, boring solution, which is unique in the undergrounding space. The current solutions that exist in the marketplace are either trench design, where you have to dig, stir a lot of Earth to then put conduit and pull your line through. So there's environmental impacts, there's time, the cost, civil work. The other solution that is adjacent to what we're doing requires fluid. If you're not going to dig a trench, then you do what's called horizontal directional drilling, which is a fluid-based boring solution, and that carries with it even more ecological costs. 

We think our solution is taking off the shelf components that are used in oil and gas well drilling today, just on a vertical basis, turning them on their side and doing some innovation to make it steerable and able to go horizontally. 

What is something your competitors underestimate about this market?

There's not been a lot of incentive or motivation to try or invest in new thinking here. The need to innovate is being undervalued. So there's a little bit of a chicken and egg scenario that plays out. You've got to shave margin in some areas to be able to create an R&D budget for testing, piloting, trying new things, and there's just not a lot. And that's where things like Joules can add a ton of value, offering the catalyst to some degree, helping through that moment and providing some of the financial ways to subsidize the risk. 

What metric do you obsess over?

Our rate of progress is ultimately the metric we obsess over, and reliability. Is this a reliable solution that can actually achieve the rate of progress that we're setting up? Ultimately everything else that is possible all comes out as a side effect of the rate of progress and the reliability. 

What is an assumption in your market that you think everybody else has wrong?

That there is a one-solution-fits-all-scenarios model. I think the industry is waking up and becoming more aware that we need more tools, to deal with and move at the rate that we need to move, to address the inadequacy challenges and affordability challenges that are looming. We are being very intentional in our messaging to the market that we are just another tool in the tool belt. We're not looking to displace, or we realize that there are going to be limitations and we're not going to be the right solution for all scenarios. 

What has been a challenge for you in the last year?

It's just human time at the end of the day. And, it's a hardware problem. Hardware development takes time and iterations and cycles.