Solar Roast Coffee.

• Author: Peterson, Eric
• Position: Small biz COLORADO COOL STUFF

In 2004, brothers and Oregon natives Michael and David Hartkop devised a business plan. With five years in the coffee business under his belt, Michael wanted to buy a roaster. David, who was in the solar energy field, wanted to build one. The latter plan won out. David's patent-pending solar roaster worked splendidly, but Oregon's winters proved too gray for year-round production. "There's no sun for months and months and months," Michael says.

The brothers Googled the country's sunniest cities and sifted through the results looking for mountains, a river and no sprawl. Pueblo, the sunniest city in Colorado and 13th-sunniest in the U.S., won out...