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2010 MID-ATLANTIC BUILDINGS & FACILITIES MANAGEMENT SHOW & CONFERENCE Sun Farm Network
Industry Pioneer delivers Solar for the Rest of Us
Excerpted from Energy Leaders Today Imagine calling the local util-
said. “It would completely clean, indefinitely renewable, ubiqui- tously available to everyone, and generated right here at home near the point of use. That is exactly what solar energy is – a huge resource that is truly sus- tainable, and it has the added benefit of being naturally dis- tributed and it delivers maximum power at times of peak demand. Technically, solar energy is rock solid. All we need are the busi- ness models and finance solu- tions that will let it take off.” That is where Sun Farm Network has chosen to focus its pioneering efforts. Warner founded Sun Farm Network with the goal of achieving mainstream scale. Once the company developed a solar financing solution that eliminated upfront investment, demand for the company’s solu- tion spread like wildfire. Since its launch in 2002, the Sun Farm Network has been one of the fastest growing solar companies in the state, doubling or tripling each year. Today it employs about 25 so- lar professionals, and continues to lead the market in the devel- opment of new solutions. The company has installed hundreds of systems across New Jersey, and currently manages the largest aggregated base of financed solar systems on the East Coast. Warner believes that the company’s success is based on its deep understand- ing of state policies, the needs of project investors, and market development dynamics. “We have been able to keep both our customers and our investors on the cutting edge by understanding not just what was happening in the market, but why” Warner notes. As part of inventing new financing solu- tions, Sun Farm Network was the first to buy and sell Solar Renewable Energy Credits
ity to order p owe r f o r y o u r n e w home, and being told it would cost $50,000. They say: “We h a v e e s t i ma t e d
Mark Warner
your electricity usage for the next 30 years - pay us for all that energy in advance, and we will be glad to hook you up. Cash or check?” And that, according to Mark Warner CEO of Sun Farm Network, is the primary problem when it comes to solar energy. “The challenge is that custom- ers are asked to pay for 30 years of solar electricity up front, in one lump sum. If customers had to buy all their electricity from the utility the same way, few people would be able to afford it. To make solar energy available to everyday consumers, we have to change the way they pay for it”. Since its founding in 2002, Sun Farm Network has been a leader in the Mid-Atlantic solar industry. SFN was the first company in the Garden State to offer financing solutions that made solar systems universally afford- able. “The industry was selling solar the way you sell washing machines - big lump sum, install and forget it.” Warner said. “That is not the way most people want to buy their electricity. So we combined solar with a long term support plan, and introduced a utility-like model that allowed clients to pay for their systems in monthly install- ments. We cracked the code on to how to make solar as convenient as utility power, and when that happened, everyone wanted it. “Warner has extensive experience creating business
Sun Farm Network’s solar partnership with Duke Farms can be seen from space. This solar installation will power the entire Duke Farms property including their educational showcase on sustainability and environmental stewardship.
models and finance strategies for new technology. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, he was actively involved in market de- velopment for the fast moving telecommunications industry and the emerging market of distributed computing. “There’s a lot of overlap with work I did during the deregula- tion of the telecommunications industry and what is happen- ing now in the energy space,” Warner stated. Warner says that solar power, like cell phone and internet technology in its infancy, is a solid technology. But it has yet to be adopted by the mainstream public due to a lack of business models, mar- keting strategies, and financial solutions that make it universally affordable and compelling. Creating those strategies and fostering widespread adoption of solar energy is Sun Farm Network’s core mission. As War- ner notes, “We’re consciously working to design solar for the large-scale conventional market. “Warner’s passion for sustain-
able energy was reinforced when New Jersey passed the Global Warming Response Act, a 2007 law that mandates that the state reduce its carbon dioxide footprint by 80 percent by 2050. “By the time my 10 year old son is my age, NJ will need to virtually eliminate all use of fos- sil fuel – for electricity, heating, and transportation” Warner said. “The sheer magnitude of that problem means that we have to get almost every man, woman, and child in the state of New Jersey involved in sustainable energy.” For Warner, a focus on main- stream markets is the key to making solar energy and other sustainable sources a signifi- cant part of America’s overall energy portfolio. While Warner is a strong believer in wind power and other sustainable sources, he maintains that solar energy has a special role to play in the sustainable energy industry. “Imagine that you could design the perfect energy source,” he
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