u.s. solar market insight 2016

Will Anderson is the CEO of Complete Solar, Inc. and has led his company’s spectacular growth from its inception. Will's vision was to build the first great solar company. To realize that vision, he architected HelioQuote™, the company's cornerstone technology that provides customers a truly custom, optimized system that maximizes their financial savings. He also developed additional technologies that enable the company to provide the fastest installations in the industry and the simplest process for homeowners to acquire their best possible solar solution.

Will intends to transform the solar industry making Complete Solar’s industry-leading sales platform and its rapid fulfillment engine available to third-party sales partners across the country. This will grant Complete Solar access to a larger and broader audience of solar customers and stimulate greater consumer choice and creativity that are not possible with the “one-size fits all” business models that currently dominate the industry.

Will has a decade of experience as a CEO in the Finance and Solar Industries. He holds a B.S. from MIT and an MBA from Stanford.

Vincent Battaglia, MBA, has dedicated his life to advancing sustainability in the built environment - one rooftop, parking field and ground mounted solar system at a time. Now a decade old, Renova Solar was honored as "America's First Professionally Accredited Solar Company" in 2012 by NABCEP and as SunPower Corporation's "Residential National Dealer of the Year" for 2014 as well as a top 50 Residential Installer by Solar Power World. The author of the book “Cut the Cord: How to Achieve Energy Independence by Joining the Solar-Powered Microgrid Revolution”, Vincent is committed to ensuring that Renova maintains the highest level of service and solar savings for its residential and business customers.

A 10-year industry veteran, Mr. Coen provides a wealth of solar asset management knowledge and experience to the AlsoEnergy team.  Formerly the Vice President of Asset Management for AES Distributed Energy, Lex was responsible for solar portfolio asset management, compliance, operations, maintenance, data intelligence, and stakeholder relations.  Prior to his role with AES, he served as both VP of Development and VP of Asset Management at Main Street Power where he directed the company’s solar development efforts and consequently led the asset management group.  Lex has worked diligently to optimize solar assets while maximizing performance and revenue across numerous funds and thousands of project sites.  Lex brings a background of real estate, finance, sales, energy development, asset operations, and management experience to AlsoEnergy, the largest independent solar monitoring provider in North America.

Thomas Conroy is president of Array Technologies, Inc., and is responsible for optimizing the company’s business operations and managing global initiatives in new, rapidly growing solar markets. Before joining Array, Conroy consulted with solar and wind energy companies as president and CEO of Evolving Energy, LLC. Prior to that, Conroy was president and CEO of Wind Tower Systems, where he led commercialization activities for a new-technology utility-scale wind turbine tower product which was acquired by GE. Conroy holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Stevens Institute of Technology and an MBA from Columbia University.

Page is President & Co-Founder of Clarus Power – a San Francisco based solar company that created the industry’s first social marketing platform to bring the right home solar options to homeowners nationwide. Page leads the Company’s sales, marketing, field development and business development efforts. Prior to founding Clarus Power, Page served as Director of Retail Sales at Sunrun. Since her start at Sunrun in 2009, Page’s career has focused on making solar mainstream by increasing efficiency in customer acquisition. Her projects have included patent-pending work in lead generation, qualification and distribution platforms. She is active in leadership efforts with Women In Solar Energy (WISE).

Raphael is responsible for building and implementing EDF RE’s portfolio strategy. He leads the coordinated effort that has allowed EDF Renewable Energy to sell close to 2 GW of net capacity since 2012 in North America, through more than 25 deals. Those asset sales have helped self-fund our development and fuel our future growth. In addition, Raphael manages corporate acquisitions (including OwnEnergy’s in 2015 and groSolar’s in 2016). Raphael also oversees the Distributed Energy Solutions team that offers storage and other innovative behind-the-meter products to large customers. Prior to transferring to the North American headquarters in 2011, Raphael worked for EDF Energies Nouvelles in Paris as Deputy Executive Advisor. There he helped craft the strategy of EDF Energies Nouvelles and took part in several acquisitions. Earlier in his career, Raphael was a strategy consultant at McKinsey & Company where he primarily focused on the energy and heavy industry sectors. Raphael holds Masters in Management from HEC Paris business school and CEMS (Community of European Management Schools).

Chris Diaz is a principal with Seminole Financial Services, LLC (SFS) a full-service national investment management / financial services organization. Mr. Diaz is responsible for the identification, evaluation, and negotiation of renewable energy finance transactions focusing on solar and wind projects between $2 million and $40 million in need of construction / interim financing; permanent debt financing; and tax credit equity. To date SFS has closed over $780 million in Construction and Permanent Financing for Renewable Energy projects, totaling 320+ MW as well as $150 million in ITC tax credit equity. Seminole Financial Services (SFS) provides construction financing; permanent debt financing; and tax credit equity for Renewable Energy Transactions as well as investment management services to various real estate investment vehicles. Currently, SFS manages over $330 million in commercial real estate and renewable energy assets nationwide, for the benefit of various public employee pension and retirement plans. Chris is a frequent National Speaker at industry conferences regarding Renewable Energy Finance and Energy Credits. He has published multiple articles regarding Renewable Energy Finance. Chris is Vice-President of the Board of Directors for the Distributed Wind Energy Association (DWEA) and an elected Alternate to the Board of Directors for the Solar Energy Industry Association (SEIA). Mr. Diaz has been involved with tax credits and financial services for over fifteen years previously with Credit Suisse, MMA Financial, and the Midland Companies. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Social Science with emphasis in urban and regional planning from Florida State University and an MBA from Nova Southeastern University.

Julien Dumoulin-Smith, CFA, is Executive Director - Equity Research for the US Electric Utilities, Alt Energy, & IPPs Group, UBS Securities, LLC. Julien has followed a broad spectrum of the space, including both regulated and competitive utilities, ranking #2 among Utilities analysts in the Institutional Investor (II) magazine survey for 2014 and 2015 as well as #2 in the Alternative Energy category in his first appearance in this category in 2015. He was ranked a Rising Star in 2010-12 by the same publication, as well as #1 among Hedge Fund managers from 2012-15. He was placed on FT's StarMine rankings as both #1 Stock-Picker for IPPs in and #3 Stock-Picker for the entire Utility Sector in The Wall Street Journal's Best on the Street rankings for 2011, alongside numerous StarMine distinctions on earnings accuracy, including the multi-utility category in 2014.

Luna leads Spruce’s Finance Product team. In this role, she develops and brings to market a full suite of consumer finance options for residential solar and efficient home improvements. Luna’s role at Spruce builds on her prior consumer finance and environmental expertise: Luna was previously vice president of corporate development at Kilowatt Financial, a solar and energy efficiency consumer finance company; a mortgage bond trader at Glenview Capital, a $10B hedge fund; and a management consultant at Lake Partners with a primary focus on mortgage analytics and specialty finance. Luna's environmental experience comes from her time as a Fulbright Fellow in New Zealand, where she conducted climate change research and spent time on an ice-breaker in Antarctica evaluating the impact of elevated atmospheric carbon from fossil fuels. Luna has a BS in earth systems, oceanography from Stanford University and an MS in applied mathematics from the University of Washington.

Prajit Ghosh currently leads a global team responsible for developing and commercializing Wood Mackenzie's views of the Power and Renewables markets. His experience spans oil, gas, coal, power and renewables markets. His current focus is on energy market transition and the impact of emerging technologies. 

Prajit joined Wood Mackenzie in 2006 where he has lead Wood Mackenzie’s North American and European gas, power & renewables market outlooks.  His recent focus has been Asia Pacific markets.

Before Woodmac, he worked at Constellation focused on US upstream and power markets.

He has extensively worked on policy issues liaising with the Government of India during his tenure at the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce. His focus there was on the Indian hydrocarbon and renewables sector.

Prajit holds a Masters degree in Energy and Mineral Resources from the University of Texas at Austin. He also holds an MBA from Symbiosis College, India and an Economics degree from Delhi University, India. He is based on Houston.

Patrick Gleason is the Director of Business Development at Direct Energy Solar where he is responsible for developing financing products, managing key vendor relationships, and developing strategic initiatives to improve sales and operations.  Patrick has experience in not only solar, but also the utility and wind energy sides of the industry.  Prior to joining Direct Energy Solar, he worked at Pacific Gas & Electric, with a focus on Finance, Operations, and Strategy.  Before that he spent time at EDP Renewables where he focused on wind energy, and Academy Solar where he worked on financial modeling.  Before transitioning to the energy space, Patrick spent more than 7 years working in risk and operations consulting for a global consulting firm, Protiviti.  Patrick earned his MBA from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, with a focus on Energy and Finance.  He holds a Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Notre Dame.

John Grossarth is Director of Commodities at Citigroup, with a particular focus on renewable energy.  He has been involved in the commodities markets for over 20 years, and his clients include developers, financial sponsors, utilities, and corporates pursuing renewable energy opportunities.
John spends a tremendous amount of time helping corporates achieve their sustainability goals with renewable energy structures that minimize price, credit, and other material risks typically associated with long-dated renewable energy transactions.
John was also the recipient of the Corporate Citizenship Award from US House of Representative Frank Pallone for his initiatives over many years to enhance and strengthen corporate relationships with non-profits focused on the environment.

Kendall Helm is a PhD economist and has been with the Sempra Energy companies since 2012. Kendall joined Sempra as Manager of Corporate Economics, where she provided research on the company’s valuation, capital structure, and corporate strategy. In 2014, she became Sempra’s Director of Investor Relations. She joined SDG&E in 2016 as Director of Origination and Portfolio Design. In this role, Kendall oversees the procurement of all long-term energy resources. Prior to joining Sempra, Kendall was Senior Economist for International Affairs and Trade at the U.S. Government Accountability Office where she reported to Congress on topics relating to climate change, energy export promotion, and international competitiveness. Previously, she has consulted for clients including the San Diego Regional Economic Development Corporation, Georgetown University, and the World Bank. Kendall received a bachelor’s degree in economics and international studies from the University of Denver and earned a doctorate degree in economics from American University.

Jade Jones is a Solar Analyst with GTM Research covering the global solar supply market. Jade aggregates and analyzes technology and pricing data within the solar manufacturing sector which informs both research and consulting. Prior to GTM, she has held several positions providing insight into the key relationships, business models and technology trends that are shaping the cleantech sector. Jade has a BS in electrical engineering from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

A founding staff member of the company, TJ has been with Inovateus Solar since 2007. Driven by the Inovateus pledge to “Build A Brilliant Tomorrow,” he has been instrumental in developing a world-class solar team that has successfully deployed solar energy projects and products internationally. Under his leadership, Inovateus has been recognized as one of the “Best Places to Work in Indiana” by the Indiana Chamber of Commerce in 2014 and 2016. TJ was recently invited to the White House to participate in a special briefing on clean energy and also received the 2016 “Outstanding Young Business Leader” award by the St. Joseph County Chamber of Commerce. Among his business and community awards, TJ was honored as a 2013 “Forty Under 40” recipient for northern Indiana and southwest Michigan. He is also a board member of the Fernwood Botanical Garden. Before starting his career at Inovateus, TJ worked for General Growth Properties in Chicago. He graduated from Columbia College (Chicago) in 2004 with a BA in business management.

Travis Kavulla is a Montana public service commissioner first elected to office in 2010. In addition to his work on the Montana commission, he is involved in Western regional activities to promote efficient markets, the reliability of the grid, and a commonsense response to the EPA’s proposed 111(d) regulations. He is also the President of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners, and serves on the California ISO’s Energy Imbalance Market Transitional Committee. Prior to his election to the PSC, Mr. Kavulla worked as a journalist, serving as associate editor for National Review and contributing to many other publications. Mr. Kavulla earned his undergraduate degree at Harvard, and was a Gates Scholar at the University of Cambridge, England, where he obtained his Master’s. He is a fourth-generation Montanan.

Shawn Kerrigan, Ph.D., has led technology and new product development for Locus Energy since 2010.  Kerrigan’s prior experience includes four years as a consultant with McKinsey & Co. focusing on the energy industry, where he worked on growth and operations strategies for utilities, solar companies, and other energy companies. He also spent two years as a Senior Investment Associate with Bridgewater Associates, a leading global macro quantitative hedge fund. He earned a doctorate in engineering from Stanford University, where he conducted interdisciplinary research across engineering, computer science and law.

Lee is director of new ventures for PXiSE Energy Solutions, LLC, evangelizing PXiSE Advanced Controller Technology (“ACT”), a patented, high-speed advanced grid control technology developed to meet the evolving needs of the modern energy ecosystem. PXiSE ACT software enables the energy industry to extract greater value from energy storage and increase the amount of renewables on the grid with its unique functionality, enabling zero spinning inertia and reserve, cost-optimized island energy production, blinkless carbon-free microgrids, and fast SCADA for utility-scale renewable energy.

Previously, Lee was director of new ventures for Sempra Renewables, a leading developer of clean energy solutions in markets throughout the U.S. The company jointly owns and operates nearly 3,000 megawatts of wind and solar generating capacity, including two of the largest photovoltaic solar plants in the U.S., and an energy storage facility that provides ramping capability to a wind farm in Maui. He was responsible for leading the development of distributed energy solutions including solar, load optimization, bio-methane, electric vehicle charging, energy Blockchain, and microgrids.

Lee has over three decades of experience in the energy and technology industries While working at San Diego Gas & Electric Company (SDG&E), a subsidiary of Sempra Energy, he founded and served as director of smart grid and led SDG&E’s smart grid and electric vehicle initiatives. Lee was twice named one of the top 100 movers and shakers influencing the smart grid market by GreenTech Media and twice recognized as a Top 12 “Mover and Shaker” in the utility industry by Intelligent Utility Magazine. He has also been recognized as a Privacy Ambassador by The Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario.

Lee is a champion for sustainability on a national level. He serves on the Board of Directors of the GridWise Alliance, where he led the development of the GridWise Alliance Grid Modernization Index (GMI). The GMI has been used since 2013 to evaluate the status of electric grid modernization in the United States, to identify and promote best practices, and to provide insights to state policy makers, regulators, and other stakeholders regarding the progress of their grid modernization.

Lee currently serves on the Board of GridX, a startup that has developed the industry’s first revenue grade, utility scale, cloud-based billing engine, as a business advisor to PI Energy, a startup commercializing nano-photonic materials, and as an advisory member on the UCLA Smart Grid Energy Research Center's Leadership Council.

Prior to joining the Sempra Energy family of companies, Lee led several software development teams at Tandem Computers, and was a partner at TransPac Software, a startup in Silicon Valley. He received a bachelor’s degree with university honors in applied mathematics/computer science from Carnegie Mellon University. Most weekends he performs in improv and musical improv comedy shows.

Stacey Kusters has worked in the energy field for over 20 years. She began her career at British Columbia Hydro’s Power Smart division, and transferred to Powerex, the marketing arm of BC Hydro in 1986. At Powerex, she was charged with new strategic market development and executing wholesale structured transactions to further optimize the natural resources for customers in British Columbia. In 2001, she joined PacifiCorp in Portland. From 2001 to 2014, she worked in various strategic and operational roles, eventually promoted to manage all of integrated resource planning for six states, market fundamentals, market contracts, structuring, pricing and modeling, as well as origination. She pioneered contracting for utility-scale renewable resources, managed major asset requests for proposals, analyzed integration of renewable resources, and managed renewable compliance and tracking requirements for Renewable Portfolio Standards and environmental policy in states with highly diverse energy policies. She regularly testified before state utility regulators in Oregon, Washington, California, Utah and Wyoming on subjects related to resource planning, renewable energy, and policies and strategies to meet regulatory requirements. In 2014, she was recruited to sister company NV Energy, newly acquired by Berkshire Hathaway Energy Company, as the Vice President of Renewable Energy and Origination, to lead a crash acquisition of all generation resources, the design and implementation of renewable requests for proposals, renewable compliance, renewable customer requests, renewable legislation and strategic policy to meet overall renewable objectives. Recently, she was recruited to Berkshire Hathaway Energy Renewables as the Vice President of Business and Development. She is now responsible for the development, acquisition and financing of renewable generation, distributed generation, and battery technology for this merchant generation business.

Stephen Lacey is Editor-in-Chief of Greentech Media. He manages a team of writers focused on solar, storage, efficiency, mobility, and grid modernization. He’s also host of the Energy Gang podcast, a weekly roundtable on the latest energy and environmental news.

Nicole Litvak is a Solar Analyst at GTM Research with a focus on the downstream US solar market. In addition to tracking the competitive landscape of installers, financiers, and technology providers in the residential and commercial market segments, Nicole serves as editor of PVNews, the solar industry's longest running market research periodical. Nicole has prior internship experience in corporate sustainability, solar water heating, and business development. She graduated from Brandeis University magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa with majors in Economics and Psychology.

Morten Lund is a partner of the firm practicing in the Energy Development group, and serves as Chair of the Solar Energy Initiative. His experience includes development and financing of a broad variety of energy and infrastructure projects. Morten’s project experience background covers the full lifecycle of infrastructure projects, from early-stage development through construction, financing, and acquisition/divestiture. He has worked on a variety of infrastructure projects, including hydro-electric facilities, chemical facilities, wind and solar energy projects, forestry/paper facilities, combustion generator projects, large aircraft, cogeneration facilities, shipping fleets, and nuclear energy facilities. Morten also represents companies developing infrastructure technology, including water treatment technology, solar energy technology, and wind energy technology.

Justin Marron is a Managing Partner and Head of Origination for Altus Power America, Inc. Before joining Altus, Mr. Marron served as Senior Vice President of Business Development for Conti Solar, a leading global EPC Corporation. Prior to Conti, Mr. Marron co-founded Wind Farm Capital, which was acquired by American Wind Capital/Barclays where he served as the Vice President of Acquisitions. Before Wind Farm Capital Mr. Marron founded Level Communications, a wireless infrastructure firm, which was acquired by Wireless Capital Partners, where he served as Senior Vice President. Mr. Marron began his career when he co-founded Fidelity Communications, a cell tower development company where he served as the Director of Business Development until it was acquired by a publicly traded REIT. Mr. Marron brings over 17 years of business development, finance, renewables, infrastructure, executive leadership and entrepreneurial experience to Altus Power. Mr. Marron holds a BA from Rollins College in Florida.

Mike has a track record for building great companies, motivated teams, and successful, ground-breaking solutions to environmental challenges. Joining Zep Solar as CEO in 2010, Mike grew that company from zero revenue to one of the most dominant and lucrative technology platforms in the solar industry. In less than 3 years, the company attained ~50% share for U.S. residential mounting hardware, reached profitability, and was acquired by installation giant SolarCity. He has also served as U.S. President of top tier panel maker Canadian Solar, and CEO of solar pioneers CleanSource Power and QBotix. In his pre-solar chapters, Mike served on the executive staffs of Lipstream Networks (early VOIP market leader), Avaki (cloud-based data services) and Reva (RFID routers), and captained technology spin-off groups at Autodesk and Sports Illustrated. Mike graduated cum laude from Princeton, where he place-kicked for the varsity football team. He received his MBA from Dartmouth’s Amos Tuck School. Mike grew up outside of Saint Louis, MO, and remains a devoted Cardinals fan.

As Director Strategic Sourcing  at Sunrun Mr. Morbitzer is responsible for the vendor selection, contract negotiations and quality management at Sunrun. He constantly evaluates new technologies on their impact on cost, reliability and usability.
During his more than 12 years in the solar industry Mr. Morbitzer was Managing Director at Renewable Analytics where he advised financial investors on renewable technologies, Director Global Procurement at Trina Solar and Head of Procurement at Germany based S.A.G. Solarstrom. Prior to his career in solar, Mr. Morbitzer worked for more than 6 years at international consulting company Accenture.

Tom is a 17-year energy industry veteran and has been a member of Schneider Electric’s energy management and procurement services consultancy for over 13 years. In his current role he leads the teams responsible for delivering consulting services related to renewable energy procurement strategy, implementation, and ongoing management in the North America and Asia Pacific regions. Schneider’s Sustainability practice offers a full suite of Cleantech and Smartgrid services including renewable and efficient DG sourcing, synthetic and physically delivered off-site PPA sourcing, environmental attribute registration and forward management, customized market intelligence services, and GHG emission reduction strategy and tactical implementation. Tom and his Smartgrid services team provide consulting and sourcing services for the ISO-administered Demand Response markets as well as various transactive energy opportunities in the U.S. and Canada. Schneider’s client portfolio for this service suite includes numerous Fortune 100 companies. Tom earned a B.A. from Colgate University and a J.D. from the University of Louisville.

Mr. Patel has been leading E3’s work on the East Coast with recent engagements involving net energy metering, distributed energy resource adoption, and New York’s Reforming the Energy Vision proceeding.  At E3 Mr. Patel has also worked with technology companies, project developers, utilities, and other entities on a variety of strategic and financial issues including the future of the utility business model. Before joining E3, Mr. Patel was the Director of Corporate Development and Project Finance at Standard Solar, Inc. a Maryland based solar and energy efficiency engineering, procurement, and construction company.  At Standard Solar, Inc. Mr. Patel developed a deep understanding of company operations, corporate development, and the financing of distributed energy resources including various types of energy efficiency measures.  Prior to this position Mr. Patel worked in the Energy Practice at NERA Economic Consulting as part of the Oliver Wyman Group in New York City and Washington DC.  At NERA Economic Consulting Mr. Patel gained extensive experience with energy markets, energy modeling, and regulatory economics.  Mr. Patel earned a Master of Engineering Management (M.E.M.) degree from Dartmouth College (Hanover, NH) along with an M.A. in Accountancy from the George Washington University (Washington DC) in addition to a B.E. in Materials Science and a B.A. in Economics from Dartmouth College.

Billy Parish is Founder & CEO, of Mosaic, the largest lender for home solar in the U.S., named one of the world’s 10 most innovative companies in energy by Fast Company for the past two years. In 2002, he dropped out of Yale to found the Energy Action Coalition and grew it into the largest youth clean energy organization in the world with over 340,000 members. He was lead architect of the Clean Energy Corps proposal to create 5 million new green jobs, which was incorporated into the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) and was used to expand Americorps with a new “Clean Energy Service Corps”. He was #22 on Fast Company’s “Most Creative People in Business”, honored as a Rolling Stone magazine “Climate Hero,” and was elected as a Fellow by Ashoka, the global association of the world's leading social entrepreneurs. His book Making Good: Finding Meaning, Money & Community in a Changing World was an Amazon bestseller.

Julia Pyper is a Senior Editor at Greentech Media covering utilities, grid issues, electric vehicles, the solar industry and energy storage. Find her on Twitter @JMPyper.

Richard Rambaldo is responsible for helping grow Sempra’s Renewable Energy business through deal origination, diligence, structuring and execution.

Richard has been an Energy Technology investment professional for over 10 years.  Before joining Sempra, Richard was an Equity Research Analyst at Citigroup covering Alternative Energy.  Prior to that, he was at Stark Investments, a $14 billion hedge fund, where he focused on public and private transactions in the Technology and Energy Technology sectors.  Richard began his investment career at Pacific Growth Equities where he co-founded the Firm’s Alternative Energy practice.

Richard graduated from the Rochester Institute of Technology and holds an MBA from the Simon School, University of Rochester.

Alan Russo serves as Chief Revenue Officer at Stem, leading the expansion of Stem’s markets in the U.S., Canada, Europe and Asia. Before joining Stem in 2018, he led sales and marketing for REC Solar, a wholly owned subsidiary of Duke Energy. Previously, Alan was Vice President of Strategic Accounts for Bloom Energy. During his 10-year tenure, he led the development and deployment of hundreds of fuel cell systems at critical facilities around the U.S. Earlier in his career, Alan also led Asia commercial operations for American Power Conversion, a Schneider Electric company, managing over 350 employees. Alan earned his B.S. in aerospace engineering from Boston University.

MJ Shiao currently serves as the Director of Community Solar at Arcadia Power, where he works to connect residential customers with community solar projects developed by Arcadia Power's partners. Before Arcadia, MJ held various positions at Greentech Media and Wood Mackenzie, including leading GTM Research, a 30-person team tracking, analyzing and forecasting the evolution of the solar, energy storage and grid edge industries.  MJ is a leading expert in the transformation of the electricity sector. He has spoken at numerous conferences, testified in front of the U.S. International Trade Commission on solar trade issues and quoted in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Bloomberg and Buzzfeed. Before joining GTM Research, MJ managed and designed several MWs of residential and commercial PV projects. He holds a bachelor's in electrical engineering from the University of Delaware, where he was named a National Truman Scholar. A believer in the social benefits of solar power, MJ has also researched, installed and tested rural off-grid PV in India and Thailand.

Jaspreet Singh is Sr. Product Manager at Enphase Energy. He is responsible for defining Enphase’s next Generation Microinverters as well as managing the AC Module integration.

Previously, Jaspreet managed utility-scale product portfolio at ABB Solar for US market. Jaspreet has extensive design experience in designing electrical distribution networks in India. Jaspreet has done extensive research on PV power plants and has authored multiple IEEE conference papers and webinar presentations. He is an active participant in interconnection/safety standard development committees, industry working groups on SMART inverters and grid integration of renewable energy.

As the President and CEO of Shoals Technologies Group, Dean Solon is responsible for running all facets of the business. Dean has a proven executive management track record and over 20 years of experience driving sales and technological growth in the solar industry. Dean founded Shoals in 1996 with partners and in the year 2000, bought all their shares in the business and changed the course of Shoals from manufacturing for the automotive industry to the solar industry. While solar was in it’s infancy, Dean saw an opportunity to bring his extensive automotive knowledge and experience to a fledgling industry. Prior to the founding of Shoals, Dean worked in technical sales at multiple automotive tier one and tier two companies. During that time, Bosch Automotive approached Dean with a request for him to start his own manufacturing business and become their sole vendor for automotive brush cards. This request was the catalyst for Dean to found Shoals Technologies Group and supply Bosch Mexico with product for many years. Dean attended college at Purdue University in 1988 and studied mechanical engineering.

Bret is a Principal of Southern Current and serves as their Vice President of Development and Strategy where he positions the company in new and emerging markets through policy development, regulation, and utility relationships.
Over his 8 years of experience in the commercial and utility-scale solar market, he has served in various capacities related to construction, development, and government relations.
Bret serves on the board of various solar industry and business organizations where he advocates for policy and regulatory reforms in the Southeast.

Jeff St. John comes to Greentech Media from The Fresno Bee, where he covered solar-power, biofuel and biomass developments in California's Central Valley, and the Tri-City Herald in Kennewick, Wash., where his beat included nuclear power and nuclear-waste remediation, as well as the research and development of biofuels, fuel cells, energy-management systems and other energy technologies. He also has written for the Anchorage Daily News, UpsideToday.com, the San Francisco Chronicle and the San Francisco Bay Guardian, and he won a National Headliner Award in 2005. Jeff has a master's degree from the U.C. Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, and believes green technology will save the planet.

Scott Stephens, a Director of Technology Development, is leading NRG Renewables’ solar technology adoption efforts based on comprehensive engagement with upstream technology development and manufacturing firms.  Key focus areas include emerging technology diligence, quality assurance process development, market analysis, and technical engagement with tax equity investors.  These efforts increasingly include the integration of storage and controls into advanced photovoltaic (PV) systems. Prior to NRG, Stephens served as a portfolio manager for the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Loan Program.  In this role, Stephens lead technical management of solar manufacturing projects including due diligence review of over 40 companies as well as technical oversight of construction and operations for ten ground-mount solar projects totaling over 2.5GW and $8.7 billion in debt financing.  Prior to the DOE Loan Program, Stephens served as a PV technology manager for the DOE’s Solar Energy Technologies Program.  In this role, Stephens managed over $100 million of annual grant funding across universities, national labs, and start-up photovoltaic manufacturers.  More generally, this time at the DOE offered Stephens a unique vantage point on an industry undergoing tremendous change.  Stephens started his career at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office examining applications pertaining to optical systems.  He earned a M.S. in Physics researching thin film PV at the Institute of Energy Conversion at the University of Delaware and a B.A. in Physics from Gustavus Adolphus College in MN.

James Tong is the CEO of Advanced Grid Consulting, which advises technology and energy providers transforming the electric grid. He is a recognized expert on market structures and strategies for distributed energy resources. His numerous thought pieces on the electric power industry have been widely cited by policymakers, businesses, and researchers. James also served as a principal on a $2.3M research led by NREL analyzing the drivers and barriers of consumer adoption of solar. In 2013 and 2014, he was named a finalist for the Platts Global Energy Awards Rising Star.

James was previously VP of strategy at Clean Power Finance, where he designed and led three projects that were awarded a total of $4.5 million from the Department of Energy. He had also served in various management positions at GE, where he completed its elite commercial leadership program. James earned a BA in economics from Yale University and an MBA from Northwestern University.

Robert began his career in the energy industry in the year 2000. Ontario Power Generation (OPG) recruited Robert out of grad school into a management rotation program in their Commercial Operations Department. There he spent 6-month terms on each of the real-time, day-ahead and term-trading desks and in the Commercial & Industrial Sales Division. PG&E's National Energy Group, based out of Bestheda, MD, brought Robert to the U.S. in 2002 where he traded term energy contracts in the Ontario IMO, NYISO, and MISO power markets. In 2004, Arizona Public Service (APS) brought Rob to Phoenix where he worked extensively on the development of renewable wholesale generation and large distributed energy projects. Leaving the utility space in 2008, Robert joined SOLON Corporation and was responsible for the development of both distributed and utility scale solar PV power plants. In 2012, Robert was recruited by M+W Group to develop the EPC power plant business unit. Today Robert holds the position as Vice President, National Accounts and works with select key clients such as BHE, Duke Energy, EDF-RE, E.On C&R, First Solar, MN Power and Xcel Energy on EPC power plant solutions.

Michael Wheeler is the Vice President of Policy Initiatives at Recurrent Energy, a leading utility-scale solar project developer.  Michael leads a team that oversees the company’s domestic legislative and regulatory affairs agenda at the state and federal level.  He is the Board President of the Large-scale Solar Association. Michael has been intimately involved with supply side policy development in California including the SB 43 Green Tariff Shared Renewables program, as well as demand side program development including Energy Upgrade California. Prior to joining Recurrent Energy in 2011, Michael worked for the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) leading Residential Energy Efficiency in the Energy Division as well as being the Transmission Advisor to former Commissioner Grueneich. Michael has also worked for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). Michael received his Masters Degree in Energy Policy from the University of Delaware.

Mack Wyckoff has over 20 years in the energy and building controls industries. He is currently the Sr. Mgr. of Renewable Energy, responsible for project origination of onsite and offsite wind and solar, fuel cells, waste to energy, electric vehicle charging and energy storage.

Previous to his current position, Mack served as Sr. Mgr., Energy Systems and Technology Development with responsibilities for research, development and demonstration of energy and greenhouse gas reduction initiatives. As Director of Building Controls, Mack was responsible for remote access, control and operation of all electrical and mechanical loads managed through Energy Management Systems and corporate power restoration program for more than 4000 domestic and international Walmart sites.

Alex Zhu is President of SFCE America, responsible for all project development, product sales, M&A and investment in the North America region for Shunfeng International Clean Energy (SFCE), the leading global clean energy solutions provider. SFCE products and services include Suntech and Suniva solar modules, Powin energy storage systems, Lattice LED lighting products and Meteo Control monitoring systems. SFCE also markets a unique Energy Cost Saving Agreement (ECSA) that enables commercial & industry building owners to reduce their energy costs for free and just share the savings. Prior to SFCE, Alex was Managing Director of Suntech America and global head of Product Management and Development (PDM) for Suntech Power. Alex joined Suntech in 2008 from the semiconductor industry where he held various management positions in engineering, operations and marketing. Alex earned his BS from Fudan University in Shanghai, MS from National University of Singapore and MBA from University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.