At RE+, the solar industry’s largest U.S. conference, recently held in September, Sol-REIT CEO Mark Settles enjoyed the privilege of speaking about the role community solar and the capital that supports its growth plays in creating equity, supporting jobs and generating wealth. Settles drew on his experiences at JPMorgan, where he spent about 20 years of his career, and his recent work with Sol-REIT to frame the conversation and explain how the specialty lender is playing its part in the ecosystem of solar development.
Expanding Rosters:
During most of his 20 year tenure at JPMorgan, Settles worked as a fixed income and bond portfolio manager in London and New York.
“We built bond portfolios and made loans,” summarized Settles. “The difference is we did it for countries, corporations, and high net worth individuals on the private wealth side.”
While his ability to manage fixed income investments is clearly relevant to the work of Sol-REIT, it was his contribution to JPMorgan’s war for talent that proved relevant to the audience of solar professionals. Settles recounted a phone call that changed the trajectory of his career – something akin to a metaphorical phone call the solar industry could use.
One day, for the very first time, he received a phone call from Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan. Dimon asked him come over and help the organization with its war for talent.
“My initial reaction was confusion. I was a fixed income portfolio manager. I wasn't sure how my skills would translate to talent management. But it became clear that this was an opportunity to expand the roster of resources within the firm’s ecosystem,” Settles recalled.
Settles went on to become, Managing Director and Diversity Recruiting Executive, he helped the firm identify and develop women and ethnic minorities for senior positions at the bank – an initiative noted in public reports and one that continues to pay dividends for the institution more than a decade later.
Expanding the Solar Workforce:
Before the audience of solar professionals at RE+, Settles acknowledged his relatively short tenure of only two years in the solar industry, but stated that everything he has learned and seen indicates that to reach our environmental goals, the industry needs to be more open-minded about sourcing talent.
“I encourage everyone to think about job creation differently, to be open-minded. We need a new roster of resources for the industry to grow. It's not just about numbers and goals; we need more horsepower to achieve our environmental objectives,” Settles suggested.
Creating a Village:
To expand the workforce, Settles suggested that the industry do something similar to what he did at JPMorgan, and that's creating a village. It takes avillage to move the needle in a large corporation, and the same goes for the solar industry. Settles believes industry members can’t go it alone. Everyone needs partners who can help them achieve their goals, collaborate, and work together. He pointed to some organizations like ACORE, the National Community Solar Partnership, and others who are already doing fantastic work to expand the workforce.
Demystifying the Solar Industry:
Setting the sights of the industry on a wider base would work hand-in-hand with the regular use of simpler language. Settles suggested that the stakeholders gathered at RE+ in Las Vegas need to play a role in demystifying the industry, making it more accessible to everyone.
“I found going to these big conferences there are a lot people who speak about the panels, the racking, the engineering, and of course finance each in a different language, but not really slowing down and keeping it simple,” Settles highlighted. “It's important if you want to go fast, if you want to accelerate, if you want to step on the gas and exceed our environmental goals, we're going to have to demystify all this.”
He pointed to the opportunity with youth who are honing skills and discovering personal dispositions that might well be served in the solar industry. He asked the audience how they thought a high school person or college person is going to aspire to be an independent engineer or environmental lawyer (for example) if they don’t understand what these people do?
Empowering Developers:
Beyond human capital, financial capital will fuel the positive impacts of solar development and community solar development. Sol-REIT’s goal is to empower engineering, procurement, and construction firms (EPCs) and solar developers to own the very positive project economics they generate. Rather than selling projects to aggregators, the firm provides a model that allows developers to own and operate projects long term, building a portfolio that ultimately helps them to build more solar year over year.
“In the two years that I've been the CEO, we've built a pipeline of over $1 billion worth of projects,” stated Settles. “Community solar has become a significant part of that pipeline,” he continued.
Settles also turned his attention to public policy as an accelerant, recognizing that while Sol-REIT aims to fund and execute these projects, it's important to understand that legislative policies play a crucial role in every aspect of solar development. He pointed out that Sol-REIT, just as the developers present at the RE+ session, primarily operates in states with progressive policies. Policies help align public and private capital (tax equity) with projects, provide training and mentorship programs, and have the power to decrease headwinds and reduce frictions that slow adoption.
“There was the Industrial Revolution, the Digital revolution and now we’re heading towards the energy transformation, each dependent upon policy, innovation and a far-reaching labor pool," Settles concluded.
A full replay of the presentation is provided above.
