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Soltage evolved from a startup idea in a business school graduate class at Yale to become a leading independent renewable energy provider , with over 100 assets owned and managed across 14 states in the US . “ We were focused on starting a platform that could manage both the capital requirements and risk and experience profile needed to launch a solar Industrial Technologies Program ( ITP ) across America driving a good scale of megawatts ,” recalls CEO Jesse Grossman , who explains how the company ’ s rapid expansion worked in tandem with the surge in corporate social responsibility initiatives seen across a variety of industry sectors .
“ We are providing power to businesses , municipalities , utilities and corporations stacked across the US . And we ’ ve raised a number of private capital vehicles that we use to fund these assets where we ’ ve got large infrastructure investors , life companies , and pension funds now backing Soltage as a platform , and are interested in investing at scale into these assets .”
Grossman notes the significant performance improvements of solar since Soltage emerged , combined with a decline in the cost of solar panels themselves , has allowed the company to broaden its customer reach . “ When we started , costs were US $ 5 per watt but presently , we ’ re buying and installing solar panels for mid 30 cents per watt ,” he reveals . “ It means our effective delivered price on a kilowatt per hour ( KW / hr ) basis has gone down
APRIL 2019