Patrick founded Greenlight Planet during his undergraduate studies in Physics and Economics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. While working on rural mini-grid electrification in India with a student NGO, Engineers Without Borders, Patrick saw that evolving technologies would make solar-powered lamps affordable enough to replace the kerosene lamps still being used by two billion people around the world. He designed Greenlight Planet's original Sun King™ solar lantern in 2006, and along with his classmate Anish Thakkar, began building commercial distribution channels in India soon after graduation. Since then the company has sold over 15 million solar-powered lanterns and home energy systems, impacting over 65 million people. The products and company have received best-in-class recognitions from technical evaluation programs of the World Bank and MIT, as well as awards from UNESCO, the Lemelson Foundation, the Economist, and Forbes Magazine.