Green Tech Company Leaders
There are people in this world who identify a problem and use that as an excuse not to do something. There are others who identify a problem and immediately translate it into an opportunity – something they can get paid to solve.
Currently there is no bigger problem than climate change, and therefore, for certain types of people, there is no bigger opportunity.
In this post we’ll introduce you to the green tech company founders and executives who are shaping the all-electric future.
Lynn Jurich
Lynn Jurich is the co-Founder and Former CEO of Sunrun, the largest residential solar company in the US. Her main claim to fame was that she invented the concept of the Power Purchase Agreement, which allows homeowners to get solar panels installed on the roof with zero upfront cost, in exchange for signing a long-term agreement to purchase the power those panels generate at a predetermined rate per kWh.
Many in the industry consider this to have been a game changing innovation, since it allowed millions of homeowners who believed that they “couldn’t afford” to go solar to do so without having to foot the upfront cost.
Nate Adams
Based out of Cleveland, OH, Nate Adams, otherwise known as the House Whisperer, describes himself as the “CEO and Rabble Rouser’ at HVAC 2.0. He is the face of a movement that is rethinking the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning industry by educating homeowners and HVAC professionals on what it’s going to take to retrofit millions of homes with all electric heating and cooling solutions.
HVAC 2.0’s aim is to create a fun and profitable business model that is built on sound building science so that anyone who wants a comfortable, healthy, renewably-powered home can have one. It’s a classic case of meeting the problem where the rubber hits the road. The fact is, we’re going to need millions of HVAC professionals out there taking care of these retrofits in the coming years.
Saul Griffith
Saul Griffith is an Australian American physicist, engineer, researcher, inventor, serial entrepreneur, and MacArthur “genius” grant winner. He is the founder and chief scientist at Otherlab, an independent research and development lab that helps government agencies and corporations understand energy infrastructure and decarbonization.
More recently he co-founded Rewiring America, a nonprofit dedicated to decarbonizing America by electrifying everything. His recent book on the subject – Electrify – was a major source of inspiration for the launching of this blog.
Environmental reporter David Roberts describes him as “probably the person who knows more about energy, as it’s used in the United States, than any other human being.”
Most important of all, Griffith’s voice in the climate debate is one of unerring optimism. He believes, and has the data to prove, that decarbonizing the economy is very doable. We already have all the necessary technology, he argues. We just need a firm commitment to its rapid deployment.
Elon Musk
Love him or hate him, few can deny that, when the book is written on the home electrification movement (hopefully around 2035, or so) there’s going to be at least a chapter or two devoted to the contributions of Elon Musk.
First, the founder of Tesla finally made electric vehicles cool. Then he figured out how to make them (at least somewhat) affordable.
That would have been a pretty significant chapter in itself, but he then went on to acquire Solarcity and transform it into Tesla Energy, conceiving along the way the concept of the Solar Roof. And then there’s the solar Power Wall, a sleek, attractive way to store energy.
We’ll have plenty more to say about Elon Musk throughout this blog but one thing’s for sure, a list of who’s who in the home electrification movement would not be credible without his inclusion.
David Roberts
David Roberts is a veteran climate reporter, who, for the better part of two decades, has covered climate change, clean energy and politics, first at Grist.org, then later at Vox.com, and more recently on his own newsletter and podcast, Volts.
His work has also been featured in The Chicago Tribune, Reuters and The Atlantic and he has made appearances on CNN and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. In specific regards to us at SwicthingtoElectric.com, it was his 2017 Vox.com article that gave me the inspiration to start this blog.