- Commercial Project Sales Director for iSun Energy
- Passionate about “Electrifying Everything” and completely eliminating all direct combustion sources in my life.
What is your field of expertise?
All things solar from sales and design to planning and logistics
Describe your journey to where you are today:
I was in college in the early 2000’s for Business Administration and started to realize that business as usual was not going to work in the future. When I had to find an internship I applied exclusively at local renewable energy companies. I had a great interview at Independent Power, LLC in Hyde Park VT, but they decided not to get an intern that year. I was offered an internship at Draker Solar Design (Now Draker Labs owned by Also Energy) and during my internship Independent Power, LLC called me and offered me a job as their Office Manager.
Independent Power, LLC was based in an off-grid horse barn in a 3-house off-grid community. Our power came from solar, micro-hydro, and a Honda generator in the winter. When it got cold my first job in the morning was to start the fire in the woodstove that heated the office. I felt like Bob Cratchit from A Christmas Carol if Scrooge had always been a good boss.
At Independent we were at the forefront of the move to grid-tied solar in Northern Vermont, but we also had a lot of off-grid customers going back to the companies beginnings in the late 1980s. In 2009 we downsized as a result of The Great Recession.
I took a sales job at EcoFasten Solar (now owned by Esdec) and became the Global Sales Rep when the previous rep and his assistant left the company. I re-established contact with one of my co-workers when he took over the solar department at what was then Peck Electric (now iSun Energy). When Peck expanded I was hired as an Assistant Project Manager and within 6 months became the head of the residential solar department.
Peck Solar worked primarily as a sub-contractor for solar sales and marketing firms. I took the residential department from 3 crews with 12 employees in 2015 to 11 crews with 44 employees. Between 2014 and 2018 we installed over 4,500 residential installations. In 2017 our sales and marketing partners were establishing their own crews while we expanded our commercial solar business.
Peck Solar was added to the Top 100 solar contractors list in 2017 and we were recognized as the largest New England based solar installer. We now worked mostly for solar developers while also selling and owning our own projects.
In 2019 we took the company public as The Peck Company. In 2020 we purchased iSun Energy changed the company name to iSun. I’m now the Commercial Project Sales Director focused on expanding our installation portfolio outside of New England.
What does your company do, for who, and how does it fit into the bigger picture of solving global issues with clean tech?
We mostly install solar, battery storage and EV chargers for commercial and utility customers, but we also have electrical and data divisions. We have installed over 166MW of solar capacity as of 2021 and are expanding our EV charging offering after purchasing iSun with their integrated Solar Carport/EV Charging products.
We recognize how important “Electrifying Everything” is to eliminating CO2 emissions. Getting as much solar and storage on the grid as possible as quickly as possible is essential if we are goign to meet our carbon goals.
What do you think is the most important thing we can be doing in terms of clean tech solutions?
Solar is a no-brainer for any commercial or residential customer. Unless it is a tiny residential system it always has a reasonable payback period and is usually cash flow neutral/positive with a loan. The only reason everyone does not have solar is that they still remember when it was expensive or have heard misinformation about how expensive it is, but I think as an industry we’re reversing that perception.
What we really need is help fuel switching. Right now the utilities are fighting renewable energy because their customers aren’t switching from ICE cars and gas furnaces to EVs and Heat Pumps fast enough. Once that starts to snowball they’ll quickly realize there is no way they can keep up with generation in a monopoly utility model and will need private investment to keep up.
What do you wish you could tell the younger you – what would’ve been incredibly helpful to you ten years ago?
Don’t go to college, become a Journeyman Electrician. Then go to college if you want to.
As an Apprentice you get paid to go to school and train in your profession. I also feel like a business degree trains you to be in upper management, which won’t happen until long after the information you were taught has lost its relevancy. As an educational model I think professional training after you start your career makes much more sense.
LinkedIn: Patrick Corcoran