This is your SolarWakeup for August 6th, 2021

From Day 1. For the better part of my career in solar, Lynn Jurich has been the CEO of Sunrun. If you go back to the 2008 era of solar, residential wasn’t really the thing that was expected to be the big thing, especially if you were based outside of California like I was. Think of all the companies in resi that came and went since then but Sunrun and Lynn stayed the course even while they were being counted out and placed in second. Here are some things I think folks should know about Sunrun and Lynn that impact the industry and where it is today. Sunrun held a central conviction that being aggressive on defending and advancing solar policy was a vital interest to the business. That meant investing millions of dollars every year to fight policy battles in Kansas, Wisconsin and other places that weren’t core to their market. It meant playing a founding role in TASC alongside others and always letting team members build partnerships with state associations and having them be the first to raise their hands when donation requests came in. Not only at the State level but I also give Sunrun big recognition for playing a leading role in the ITC extension in 2015 but that’s a story for another year. All of that to say that it’ll be a different when Lynn leaves her post as CEO at the end of the month. Of course, it is great to see Mary Powell join Sunrun as CEO coming in from her board director role that she’s held for 3 years and of course as former CEO of Green Mountain Power.

Opinion

Best, Yann