Dear family, friends, and colleagues,

In the past years, many of you heard me talk about my intention to start a learning platform called SolarAcademy – something like Khan Academy for the solar industry and more.

Over the past decade, we held numerous and lengthy debates at CivicSolar about whether or not to do this within CivicSolar. Well, now that CivicSolar has found a good home, the day has come.

Better late than never.

Today, I am reaching out to you to let you know that we are officially launching SolarAcademy with the intention to create a platform where property owners and solar industry professionals meet to learn from each other about how to more efficiently and more collaboratively create local sustainable energy solutions for their buildings and communities.

At CivicSolar, we were great at providing deep technical knowledge to contractors about solar energy equipment. And, we made money by selling equipment.

At SolarAcademy, our intention is to further expand and accelerate this know-how flow and learning. We plan to provide most of this information for free while monetizing a small percentage of the information and offering some marketing services at modest rates.

At SolarAcademy, we plan to test some new ways of doing business.

• • We will test connecting many layers and segments of industry with each other, as well as with the ultimate end users, using online video and similar mediums so as to act as a networking hub and a informational guide.
  • We will test giving visibility and an authentic voice to each and every professional and company in the industry through our industry directory, company profile pages as well as recorded and archived video conversations and interviews.
    • For example, check out this video interview and the story of Six Rivers Solars in Eureka, CA and why they prefer to install Generac Solar Batteries over Tesla.
  • We will use innovative methods to educate individuals, contractors, and property owners about solar power.
    • For example, in this zoom session you can hear from our friends at Solare Energy in San Diego about how they design, size and sell a solar system. And in this video, you can learn more about adding storage (batteries) to an existing solar system.
    • Also, check out my conversation with Chris Collins of Ohm Analytics who provides probably the best intelligence on small/medium sized solar installers.
    • And, check out this article and demo on Bodhi, a simple and effective software tool for solar installers looking to increase customer satisfaction.
  • We will aim to create a truly balanced company that delivers on its obligations to its employees, customers, vendors, as well as to the planet, government, and local communities.
  • Ooops, let me correct that! We will likely be organized as a Collective/Co-op or B-Corp type organization. We will aim to fix what is wrong with today’s businesses (extreme concentration of capital, power and information being a top issues) and the power/energy industry, not only from an environmental standpoint but also from a moral one.
  • We will work to help maintain a healthier, more sustainable, and more equitable and connected power and energy system for planet Earth.
  • We will also pepper in a healthy dose of “solar wisdom,” as it pertains to the things happening in our lives, to help keep our entrepreneurial spirits up as we create the more balanced, equitable, and healthy planet we strive for.

If you are reading this and wondering how SolarAcademy can help you or vice versa, we urge you to check out some of the sections at SolarAcademy.com. Feel free to reach out to us by replying to this email.

One final note about our long term intention. Our intention is that SolarAcademy evolves into a social learning platform which will be about accelerating the “power transition of humanity”. What we mean by power transition is not only the move from dark/fossil fuels to light/clean energy (mostly solar + batteries) but also the move from a paradigm of “power over others,” to a paradigm of “power with others”… through accelerated learning and sharing of knowledge.

Thank you for your time and attention.

Kerim

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