Michael Campbell, CEO of Laguna Beach, Calif.-based Ra Power & Light, likens cash-deal commercial and industrial (C&I) solar projects to unicorns – rare and elusive. Catching one requires a precise understanding of the value proposition.
Conveying the value proposition means convincing a potential client’s ownership – and, possibly, a board of directors – that a solar installation makes business sense. This is a long process.
Everybody thinks he has it hard. But, the successful practitioners of C&I solar have to have a portfolio approach to their own businesses. Though residential and utility-scale specialists have their own nuances and business models, the flatness of the C&I market segment relative to the growth in the other two gives some indication of the difficulties involved in making business owners sign.
Making the business case for solar is just the first, long step in the process. The actual project generally requires installers to embark on a weeks – if not months – long effort to build a significant construction atop the customer’s place of business without adversely affecting the conduct of that business.
Successfully bringing this off – not to mention the portfolio of such projects at a given moment that are required for a C&I solar developer to remain in business – requires a finely honed project-management machine.
Successfully bringing this off – not to mention the portfolio of such projects at a given moment that are required for a C&I solar developer to remain in business – requires a finely honed project-management machine.
“As with all things on these projects, we base our strategy for project management on the business processes that are going on inside the building,” Campbell says. “You have to harmonize the project-management schedule with the practical reality of what your client does for a living.”