Sun Farm Network
A LEADER IN SOLAR
With extensive experience in business and finance for new technology, CEO Mark Warner has helped Sun Farm Network become a leader in the MidAtlantic solar industry, pioneering new ways for customers to pay for their solar energy use and making solar systems universally affordable.
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Industry Pioneer delivers Solar for the Rest of Us.
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Sun Farm Network: Solar for the Rest of Us INDUSTRY PIONEER MAKES SOLAR AFFORDABLE by Jane Caffrey
Imagine calling the local utility to order power for your new home and being told it would cost $50,000. They say, “We have estimated your electricity usage for the next thirty years. Pay in advance and we’ll be glad to hook you up. Cash or check?” And that, according to Mark Warner, CEO of Sun Farm Network, is the primary problem with solar energy. “If customers had to buy their electricity from the utility in one lump sum, 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.” Founded in 2002, Sun Farm Network was the first company in New Jersey to offer a financing solution that made solar systems universally affordable. “Everyone else was selling solar the way you OPPOSITE PAGE: Visible from space, the Duke Farms’ solar array will power their entire property including their educational showcase on sustainability and environmental stewardship. LEFT: Mark Warner is CEO and driving force behind Sun Farm Network’s mission to make solar affordable.
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sell washing machines - big lump sum, install and forget.” Warner said. “That’s not the way most people want to buy their electricity. So we combined the solar system with a long term support plan by introducing a utilitylike model that eliminates up-front costs and allows customers to pay for systems in monthly installments. We cracked the code on to how to make solar as convenient as utility power. When we do that, everyone wants it.” Warner has extensive experience creating business models and finance strategies for new technology. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, he was actively involved in market development for the fast moving telecommunications 4 Winter 2010
industry and the emerging market of distributed computing. “There’s a lot of overlap with work I did during the deregulation of the telecommunications industry and what is happening now in the energy space,” Warner said. Warner said that solar power, like cell phone and internet technology in its infancy, is a solid technology that has yet to be adopted by the mainstream market due to a lack of business models, marketing 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.
“We’re trying to design solar for a large-scale mainstream market. We can make solar available for everybody, not just the rich guys. It’s solar for the rest of us,” Warner said. His passion for sustainable energy was reinforced when New Jersey passed the Global Warming Response Act, a 2007 law mandating the reduction of the state’s carbon dioxide footprint by 80 percent by 2050. “By the time my 10-year-old son is my age, New Jersey will need to eliminate almost all fossil fuel use – 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
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New Jersey involved in sustainable energy.” For Warner, a focus on mainstream markets is the key to making renewable energy a significant 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 industry. “Imagine that you could design the perfect energy source. It would be completely clean, indefinitely renewable, ubiquitously available to everyone and generated right at home near the point of use,” he said. “That’s exactly what solar energy is – a huge resource that is truly sustainable, and it has the added benefit of
delivering maximum power at times of peak demand. Technically, solar energy is rock solid. All we need are the business models and finance solutions that will let it take off.” And that is where Sun Farm Network has chosen to focus its innovative efforts. Warner’s founding goal eight years ago was, and still is, to achieve mainstream scale. Once the company developed a solar financing solution that eliminated up-front investment, demand for the company’s solution spread like wildfire. The company has been one of the fastest growing solar companies in the state, and in recent years has been sustaining triple-digit growth. Today, it employs about 25 solar professionals and
ABOVE: Speaking to local busnessmen and women, Mark Warner preaches, “Solar is for everybody, not just rich guys.”
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THIS PAGE: (TOP) New Jersey businesses reduce energy costs and hedge future utility increases by going solar. (BOTTOM LEFT & RIGHT) Houses of worship made their sustainability commitments real through a Sun Farm Network solar installation. OPPOSITE PAGE: Sun Farm Network creates New Jersey jobs that can’t be outsourced.
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continues to lead the market in the development 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 said the company’s success is based on its deep understanding of state policies, 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, but why,” he said. As part of inventing new financing solutions, Sun Farm Network was the first to buy and sell Solar Renewable Energy Credits (SRECs) in New Jersey. SRECs are sellable commodities which, under state regulations, are generated by solar power systems in addition to electrical energy. The company has been active in developing a market for these commodities,
which can generate substantial revenue for solar system owners. The state has transitioned from pay-up-front incentives like rebates to a larger, more scalable framework based on competitive markets. The solar industry in New Jersey is installing about one coal plant a year of solar capacity. And based on recently passed legislation, the state will build about five nuclear plants worth of solar power by 2026. “Under the market-based structures that we helped pioneer, in just over a decade solar systems in New Jersey will produce more electricity per year than the Hoover Dam,” said Warner. “New Jersey has developed a market system that will scale, and we are proud to have been part of making it accessible to everyday customers.” This market leadership has earned Sun Farm Network an active role in state program development, and the company currently sits on the New Jersey Renewable Energy Committee and
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works closely with state administrators on new legislation and policy development. In 2008, the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities recognized the company’s leadership with the coveted “Clean Markets Innovator of the Year” award. Although fluent in the needs of investors and the broader issues of public policy, Warner remains focused on the practicalities of delivering financing solutions that enable ‘solar for the rest of us.’ Warner said, “These government programs can be complicated and working with utilities and project investors is not for the faint of heart. Our success as a solar company comes from translating all these solar market details into simple, compelling solutions that are easy to use. We make solar energy a sound and immensely satisfying business decision.” 8 Winter 2010
The success of Sun Farm Network can be seen in the hundreds of projects completed by the company across a wide range of market segments. While much of the company’s current focus is on large commercial projects, Sun Farm Network’s financial expertise helped open entirely new segments. Warner is especially proud of the work the company has done to bring solar to New Jersey farms and the faithbased community. “As a result of our work with the New Jersey Farm Bureau, we have installed solar on more New Jersey farms than any other company in the industry,” Warner said. Interest in the company’s solar solutions has been just as strong in the faith-based community, “Working with our partner Greenfaith, we have installed solar on
more houses of worship than the entire rest of the industry combined. These congregations saw sustainability as a matter of faith. Going solar was a way to make their stewardship commitments real, and we are proud to have helped make it possible for them.” Warner was recognized for his innovative work and commitment to these inspirational community-leading projects by Greenfaith in 2007. He says these segments are especially challenging, yet rewarding, and their success in those markets has paved the way for new innovations. “Solar is exploding in New Jersey, and we are developing new solutions that take ‘solar for the rest of us’ to a whole new level,” Warner said.
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Unlike utility power, where costs fluctuate with fuel prices, solar provides predictable, fixed-price energy over its thirty-year lifetime. “By increasing the solar component in New Jersey’s energy supply, we are helping contain energy costs for the entire state. We are starting to grow in a whole new way.” As an example of that expanded direction, Sun Farm network is currently working with the Duke Farms Foundation, a large family estate and nonprofit organization. Duke Farms is undergoing a massive renovation, re-purposing the property as an educational showcase for sustainability. An extensive solar farm, covering 2.6 acres and producing 640 kilowatts, will power the entire facility. “We are proud of our work with Duke Farms,
and this project has given us a chance to push the boundaries of what it means to be 100 percent sustainable,” Warner said. Whether it’s financial problem solving, opening new markets, or breakthrough solar showcases, Warner hopes to keep his company focused on the strategic goal of making mainstream solar energy a reality. “We have proven that if combined with smart market strategies and practical financing solutions, solar can become a large scale market serving thousands of customers,” he said. While already a widely respected and wellestablished pioneer of the Garden State’s solar market, Sun Farm Network is hard at work breaking new ground in its mission to bring solar to the rest of us. ELT
TOP: Sun Farm Network is a market leader of large scale ground arrays on New Jersey farms. BOTTOM PHOTOS: Homes, farms, small businesses, and houses of worship all benefited from “Solar Pays,” Sun Farm Network’s original financial mechanism. All photos courtesy of Sun Farm Network.
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