Steve Baer

In his teens while a student at Midland School, he read Lewis Mumford and decided technology needn’t necessarily degrade or complicate people's lives.

After discharge from the Army, he and his wife, Holly settled in Zurich, Switzerland, where he worked as a welder and attended Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule, studying mathematics.

[6] In the early years at Zomeworks, Baer was able to work with other innovators and idea people, such as the solar designers Day Chahroudi, Dave Harrison, and Dick Henry.

Baer’s approach has been to develop strategies and products that simplify rather than complicate; things that add to, rather than detract from, the self-sufficiency of a building and its occupants.

The "Track Rack" solar tracker which Baer and Zomeworks staff developed is a metal-framed passive-solar dynamic mounting for photovoltaic (PV) modules.

With an arrangement of cylinders, pistons, and tubing, the device uses the differential pressure and movement of entrapped liquid to enable gravity to turn the rack and follow the sun.

Depending on heat and hydraulics, and without motors, gears, or computerized controls, the rack enables the PV module to face the sun ("sunflower-wise") for maximum efficiency.