FAFCO Farewell

In 1969, Freeman A. Ford and Richard Rhodes founded FAFCO Inc. and started the modern-day solar industry in the USA.  FAFCO started manufacturing polymer heat exchangers for solar pool heating systems with a goal to become a large, thriving company that did good while doing well.  Never satisfied to just survive in the highly seasonal and hyper-competitive solar pool heating industry, FAFCO took substantial risks as it worked to provide solutions to the world’s energy problems and become the large and vibrant company envisioned by Freeman and Dick. With the help of our dealers, we installed well over 200,000 solar pool heating systems that combined would generate the power equivalent of five nuclear power plants.  

Multiple times, FAFCO entered break out markets including thermal batteries, solar water heating systems, and photovoltaic / thermal panels and systems. For the past five years, we’ve been working on a novel solar thermal assisted heat pump water heater. Along the way, we survived many existential threats to the business including Reagan’s cancellation of the tax credits in the 1980’s, the September 11 terrorist attacks, the Great Recession, and even the Covid-19 pandemic.  Despite our best efforts and hard work, all attempts to pursue our dream ultimately failed.  Now, we find ourselves out of capital, and we’ve decided to close the business.

We’d like to thank everyone for supporting FAFCO and our vision.  While we sincerely wish things had worked out differently, they did not, and we are forced to accept and deal with reality.  Good luck with all your future endeavors.  Who knows, maybe someday we’ll meet again and join forces in pursuit of our next noble cause?