It's WINDSday!

Solar Panels on the Roof? “It Works,” says This Nomad

By Joel Rubin

At WINDSdays, we’re suckers for offshore wind blades and solar panels. So when I exited my car recently and spotted a big Ford with the latter on the roof, it got my attention.

Standing outside was Tommy Wolf, a graduate of Princess Anne High School and a self-described “nomad, not staying anywhere in particular,” except inside his 2011 Expedition. “In 2005, I moved to Louisiana to clean up after Hurricane Katrina and stayed for twenty years. I made a lot of friends, but then I got bored, COVID hit, and I took off.”

Could Solar Absorbing Satellites in Space Address Our Power Deficits on Earth?

Far-fetched? Perhaps, but a four-year-old startup called Overview Energy, operating out of a lab in data center heavy Ashburn, VA, is working on a way to harness the sun’s rays to power our burgeoning electricity needs…but to do so at night.

Berkley’s Lone Supermarket Still Thriving Five Years Since Opening

When Farm Fresh (FF) closed its Hampton Roads stores in 2018, other grocers filled most of its empty suburban spaces. But it took three long years before entrepreneur Mike Palmer, a native Jamaican and former Navy man who owns three MP Island Cafes in the area, opened a supermarket in the former FF on Berkley Avenue in Norfolk.

The Shiflets Are Still the First Family of Tennis in Hampton Roads

Harvey Shiflet has worn many hats in his life. First was a helmet as a quarterback at Granby High and University of South Carolina. Then he was a dentist for 53 years, and on the side, a real estate developer and (since 1975) owner of one of the nation’s best tennis centers, located off Great Neck Road in Virginia Beach.

Energetic: The Kahle Family Has a Work Ethic as Big as Their Family

On Saturday mornings on 18th Street in VB’s Vibe District, there is an art and eco market besides the farmer’s one.

And it’s where you’ll often find Kate Kahle, perhaps with seven-year-old Elaina, peddling Kreatively Made, Kate’s hypoallergenic, nickel free, stainless-steel earrings, made of polymer clay.

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