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Energy Entrepreneurs Flock to Renewables Bonanza

Renewable Energy World

October 12, 2011

Never in history have renewables entrepreneurs seen such good times. But who are they? Where do they come from? And why are they arriving in a flood at renewable energy's front gate?

We hear a lot about the job-building benefits of renewable energy when it draws manufacturers and developers to local communities. Less talked about are those who arrive well before the shovels, steel, factories and jobs. These are the green energy entrepreneurs – the creative thinkers and risk takers responsible for the rise of clean energy ventures over the last decade.

Ron Flavin is positioned at renewable energy's front gate, so he has a good view of who enters. Flavin, who has worked in the U.S., the U.K., Colombia, Peru, Switzerland and Spain, acts as a consultant and grant writer for renewable energy start-ups, an entrepreneurial enterprise in its own right that has kept him busy in recent years. "They come from everywhere, and not necessarily from energy," says Flavin, who has attracted $100 million for his clients. He assists not only those you would expect — engineers and inventors — but also some that are surprising: Hollywood studio executives and military experts.

Others entering the industry are veterans of energy, finance, agriculture, telecommunications, high tech, science, transportation, construction, nanotechnology and commerce, all drawn by enormous opportunity, as the largest economies in the world spend an expected $2.3 trillion over the next decade to revamp industrial-age energy apparatus into cutting-edge technology.

Green energy entrepreneurs emerge from throughout North America, Europe and Asia, but they tend to congregate in high-tech regions such as Silicon Valley, an area of California becoming as much about energy as it is the internet. "You can't throw a softball around here without hitting another solar company," says Dan Shugar, one of the solar industry's early pioneers and now chief operating officer of Solaria, a Fremont, Calif.-based company that makes silicon photovoltaic products.

Having tackled "computers, software, and the internet, the new area is renewable energy," adds Gary Price, partner in Sensiba San Filippo, a California accounting and consulting firm that has helped many Silicon Valley energy startups.

Energy’s Mark Zuckerberg?

And, like the fabled college-age geniuses who brought us Google, Facebook and Microsoft, energy entrepreneurs sometimes launch straight from the dorm room. Not all introduce new technology; some bring innovations in service or financing.

Aaron Hall, president of California-based Borrego Solar, conceived his company while he was an economics major at Northwestern University. His youthful ambition surprised a lot of people, but not his family, who say that as a pre-schooler he sold pine cones to neighbors, and later set up an elaborate candy selling enterprise at his high school.

As a college student in 2001, Hall decided he was on to something when he started telephoning solar companies as part of a senior project. No one returned his calls. Rather than dropping the project as a failure, Hall had an "Aha!" moment. "I concluded it was because the companies either weren't sophisticated enough to handle their demand, or they were too busy handling the demand. One way or the other I saw a clear opening for the business," he says.

So Hall took over a small solar operation started by a family friend. He found, however, that it was difficult to sell solar panels as a young 20-something. Customers were skeptical. "They said, 'You are in your 20s and you're trying to sell me a $40,000 system?'" Hall overcame this hurdle with a business model that emphasized economy and superior service. He offered solar installations at no up-front cost and charged customers based on system performance, long before this became a common approach. In the early years he kept his overheads low, living and working out of his parents' home, accepting family loans, taking advantage of credit card float, and building trusted relationships with vendors who then extended favorable terms to his company.

A decade later, Borrego Solar receives financing from US Bank and East West Bank, and employs 80-90 people. The company expects to earn revenues of $125 million this year and to double its business in 2012. Inc. magazine has recognized Borrego's success, placing Hall at the top of its "30 under 30"entrepreneurs and naming him as one of four CEOs to watch. The magazine also placed Borrego on its list of America's fastest growing companies for four years running.

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