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Green Light Distrikt
Green Light Distrikt is about entrepreneurship focused on the cleantech sector. Edited by Chris Williams with frequent guest posts from friends, experts and industry insiders from clusters across the globe. Our goal is to provide a place where cleantech entrepreneurs in various clusters across the globe can learn from one another. Green Light Distrikt is creating the "Hitchikers Guide to Clentech" to provide a resource for cleantech entrepreneurs. Read more
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Tag Archives: Renewable Energy
June 7th, 2010
Being a Solar Hero and Lessons on Leadership
TOPICS: BOSTON, Renewable Energy
I am a solar hero. Well, almost. For the past month I’ve been running a crew installing solar in Roxbury. I’d say we’ve installed about 50kW in the past month, not bad on a pitched roof. This is some of our work to the right. The name solar hero started as a joke around the job site but mainly is used to talk about anyone who kicks a#$ and takes names while installing solar.
Over the past 3 months I’ve learned 3 things about leadership, its kinda like a 3 steps process to becoming a leader type stuff. By leader, I mean someone who others would willingly follow. I have to admit the working construction was the last place I thought I’d be learning about leadership but here goes.
Step 1: Gain Trust
The first thing I learned is that you need to gain people’s trust and respect. People don’t listen to the words coming out of your mouth, but they listen to if the source (ie you) is credible. Credibility is determined by trust. This is hard in the beginning because trust usually comes over time. These are not my words either, you can see The Leadership Challenge
Step 2: Provide a vision.
Once you have gained everyone (or most peoples trust) the next step is to provide a vision. Sometimes this can be a direct vision, “we are going to put solar panels on the roof today” or a lot of times I’ve found the best way to get a vision is through asking good questions “what do you guys think is the best path?”. This not only increases trust, but it involves others in the decision making process so they’re more likely to buy in to the last decision.
Step 3: Help Others
Here is the key part. Help everyone else as much as you can to do their jobs even better to reach the vision. When you help others, they will WANT to help you in return.
From my time in school and in past jobs, I’ve noticed a huge difference between formal power structures and informal ones. Most leadership comes down to informal structures. You may ask what is the difference? If you had a group of guys and asked them who they would want to follow, whoever they point to is most likely a leader type figure to them. Even though this might not be their direct boss. Why would they follow this person? Because they probably trust who they choose and he/she helps them to do their job the best. Sometimes people get this confused with formal power structures, where people will do things when they are told because their boss is telling them.
How can we use this to further Renewable Energy adoption?
What I’ve started to think about is how can I use these learning to further renewable energy integration, specifically on a political front.
Here’s what we need to remember, no one will listen to us if they don’t trust us first. It does not matter if every thing about global climate disruption is true, if we are not trusted then we won’t be listened to.
So, here’s the challenge, how do we make ‘non-renewable energy believers’ trust us? Simply stating what we believe to be facts over and over again will not do it.
Tagged leadership, Marketing, Renewable Energy, Solar PV
No Comments / Leave a comment or question
June 4th, 2010
The Green Jobs Bubble: Why the Coming Backlash Is a Good Thing
TOPICS: BOSTON, Entrepreneurship, Green Building
There’s going to be a Green Jobs backlash. There…I said it. The manufacturing plant that closed up the road can’t be re-tooled over the course of eighteen months to magically employ the same number of people doing mythical ‘green’ things. Promising this to a community or a person that has been laid off is a recipe for disappointment and resentment and I expect some of those unrealistic promises will come back to bite people who made big promises. That’s the bad news – take some time to mourn the loss if you need it.
Once we get over that fact, we can move on to the good news: companies are hiring and there are more opportunities in renewables and energy efficiency than ever. The Great Recession that we’re either emerging from or still buried in has caused an subtle paradigm shift in employment in the construction industry that is not that complicated to understand once you see it. Consumer preferences are changing but companies are risk adverse, so there’s more contract work, lots of temporary positions, and entrepreneurship is a necessary option sometimes. The opportunities are there, they just aren’t packaged with a corner office and a pension.
I know many people who have gotten green jobs and there will be many, many more in the months and years ahead. So lets not let the inevitable Green Jobs backlash distract us from the exciting changes that are slowly but surely taking place.
Tagged green jobs, Renewable Energy
February 22nd, 2010
Solar Power + Whitehouse. Hey Obama! Lead by Example
TOPICS: BOSTON, Government Policy, Renewable Energy
One of my favorite tweeples @solarfred has recently started a campaign to get Solar Power on the @whitehouse called Hey, Whitehouse! Where’s the solar PV?
Why hasn’t this happened sooner? We, at The Green Light Distrikt believe this is an amazing idea. Obama, and for that matter ALL public officials who are supporting solar power and renewable energy need to lead by example and put their money where their mouth is. Massachusetts, Colorado, and California come to mind as well. But that will wait for later. For now, let’s focus on the @whitehouse
SolarFred is the type of person we need to driving the movement forward, being proactive and keeping out elected officials in check.
If you believe that we need renewable energy, I urge you to help. Send a couple (by a couple I mean hundreds!) and an email or two.
Here’s how you can help according to Solar Fred:
Plus, there’s nothing like a role model like the President of the United States (or Oprah) to help people to see that solar technology is ready for prime time and makes financial sense.That’s why we’re making this grass roots appeal to President Obama to get some solar panels on the White House again. I hope you’ll join me in sending the President the message below.
Simply copy and paste the text and insert into the president’s email form here. If you’re afraid of email forms, you can directly email our Nobel Prize winning Energy Secretary Stephen Chu at The.Secretary@hq.doe.gov. If you’re on Twitter, why, you can tweet this post to the @whitehouse and to the president’s official spokes-dude, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs. Alternatively, you can tweet this post to Oprah, because she’s a super power too.
Remember, that these people are usually ignoring you, so the more you spread the word, the more it feels like November gets their attention.
As for the letter, I’m purposely going to make this appeal a little quirky and funny, because doing the same old yada, yada, yada bull earnest appeal usually goes into a yada, yada, yada same old bull concerned advocate pile. Okay? Okay! Here goes. (Oh, and don’t forget to share this post with your friends, family, and pets on Facebook, etc. too.)
Email this part:
RE: Solar, White House, and Bo
Dear Mr. President and Energy Secretary Chu,
Dudes! What’s with the delay of getting solar panels back on the White House?
As you know, your predecessor, President Jimmy Carter, put solar hot water on the Presidential homestead in the 1970’s, but then President Ronald Reagan thought they were unsightly and distasteful to the oil, gas, and coal lobbyists and ripped them off. Bummer, because those panels would still be working and saving tax dollars today.
Now, I know, ironically, that oil man President Bush (Yes, “W.”) allowed the National Park Service to put a solar PV system on a White House maintenance shed, but that’s not, you know, The White House. Frankly, I’m not sure what color that maintenance shed is, LOL! But I digress. A-hem.
The point is, Mr. President, that America needs you to lead by solar example. Could you please at least offset the residential portion of the White House with a solar electric and solar hot water system? There would be so many benefits to this.
As Energy Secretary Chu will tell you, putting up solar panels with today’s “smart” monitoring technology will allow you to show the public a real-time website with the residential White House energy savings and reduced CO2 emissions. You might also inspire more people to take advantage of the 30% solar Federal tax credit and new Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) financing programs. This, in turn, will inspire me, a lowly registered voter in a battleground state. Not that you should pander to us voters, but isn’t going solar the right thing to do anyway?
So, please go solar, Mr. President; and as a side note, don’t forget to walk Bo.
Respectfully wanting you to lead,
Your name,
City and State.
Tagged Renewable Energy, solar, solarfred, white house
January 21st, 2010
6 Steps to How I Landed My Dream Job in Renewable Energy
TOPICS: BOSTON, CleanTech Guide
Do you see the guy on the right? This is what I’ll be doing in a couple weeks! 3 months ago I wrote about the 7 things I learned from losing my dream job in renewable energy, and the 7 values that were driving my job search. I guess I like the number 7.
Losing the job wasn’t really that bad, it was a great experience and showed me how to manage a transition so it will be easier in the future. I started the blog to explore what was happening in the industry in Boston and as of last week I will be working with Boston area renewable energy company. I’m really stoked, I think they have one of the best business models in the clean energy industry hands down. I wanted to walk through the 6 steps that I took to get the job:
Tagged BPI, IGSHPA, IREC, ISPQ, job search, LEED, Nexamp, Renewable Energy
January 18th, 2010
Video: What IS and IS NOT working in the Clean Energy Industry – Part 2 Non-Profits
TOPICS: BOSTON, Local Events, Renewable Energy
Last week, I posted the first part of a discussion by Chuck Levin, the Director of New Generation Energy where he discussed what is working and what’s not working in the clean energy industry. At the end of the discussion Chuck began to discuss how New Generation Energy addresses some of the places that are currently not working in the industry. In Part 2, Chuck continues to discuss what a ‘perfect world’ would like to, in terms of increasing clean energy production and efficiency and goes more in depth with how New Generation Energy approaches the situations, the role of certifications, and how their Renewable Energy Notes work. See a details description of the talking points below the video. Enjoy!
Remember VOTE for your TOP 3 favorite Boston Clean Tech Companies. Voting ends in February and the top 10 companies will be profiled each month in 2010
Tagged alternative energy, chuck levin, Energy Efficiency, new generation energy, non-profits, Renewable Energy
January 12th, 2010
Video: What IS and IS NOT working in the Clean Energy Industry – Part 1
TOPICS: BOSTON, Interviews, Local Events
This is the first video post for The Green Light Distrikt and am really excited about it, along with a site re-design that will be completed by the time I return to Boston from Toronto. Last week, I went to a local Boston area Green Drinks event. I met some great people, reconnected with others that I haven’t seen for a while and saw a great discussion by Chuck Levin, Director of New Generation Energy that gives a great snapshot of the energy efficiency and green energy industry. Chuck discusses how the government is affecting the industry, what’s working and having trouble and lastly what New Generation Energy is working on. The posts will be split into two separate posts and I plan to be collecting a lot more great video content of events around the Boston area.
Also, please vote for your Top 3 favorite Boston clean tech companies. The top 10 vote receivers from the list of the top 26 of Boston clean tech companies will be profiled each month on The Green Light Distrikt in 2010 starting in February.
Please leave your comments on the video, I’m excited to hear what you think.
Tagged chuck levin, Energy Efficiency, ESCO, new generation energy, Renewable Energy
January 12th, 2010
Clean Tech Tuesday Boston: Boston + China Wind Deal, Alt. Energy to Double, Clean Tech VC Upswing
TOPICS: Uncategorized
This is the third Clean Tech Tuesday, though the first one was on a Friday. At first, I didn’t think I would be able to post about Boston based clean tech news every week, but things have not slowed down and there has been ample news stories every week that I want to highlight and share with you. I’m interested in hearing your stores as well, please share via twitter on #cleantechtuesday.
Also, please vote for your Top 3 favorite Boston clean tech companies. The top 10 vote receivers from the list of the top 26 of Boston clean tech companies will be profiled each month on The Green Light Distrikt in 2010 starting in February.
Here are my 4 favorite stories from the past week in no particular order:
1. Morgan Stanley Chooses EnerNOC’s Monitoring-Based Commissioning Application to Drive Persistent Energy Savings
Industry sector: Energy efficiency, Energy service
January 7, 2010
EnerNOC is seeing success in diversifying from their original and core product, demand response energy solutions, to other solutions namely the Monitoring-Based Commissioning Services (MBCx) cited here. Good news for EnerNOC who last quarter started to break even but has been a publicly traded company for a little over a year. There growth is certainly creating some jobs in their downtown Boston headquarters, just in case you’re looking you can EnerNOC job openings here
Tagged american superconductor, Clean Tech Investment, Energy Efficiency, EnerNOC, Renewable Energy, wind
