Archive for the ‘Events’ Category

groSolar was recognized for its impressive growth last night at the 7th Annual 5×5x5 Growth Awards from Vermont Business Magazine. The 5×5x5 Growth Awards recognize 5 companies in 5 sectors who have experienced major growth over the last 5 years. This is the second year that groSolar has been recognized. groSolar experienced 3429% sales growth over the last 5 years.

John Boutin - President Vermont Business Magazine, Scott Carpenter - KeyBank, Jeff Wolfe - CEO groSolar

Live in the San Diego area? Own a home and have SDG&E as your electric company? Interested in solar energy? Then sign up to win a chance at one of three $1,000 cash prizes or one lucky winner will get their home powered by the sun for free! Say what?! Free solar electritiy? Yep, that’s right. groSolar has partnered with 91x and Magic 92.5 to offer one lucky winnter free solar electricity. How do you apply? Go to 91x.com/gogreen or magic925.com/gogreen for full details and entry form. Apply online or fill out the sweepstakes form on the back of the 91X sticker (slap it on your car and you could win even more prizes!)

Check out the link to the radio commercial on 91X below. We got a kick out of it!

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I had the pleasure of participating in the Edison Electric Institute Annual Conference in San Francisco earlier this summer. I spoke on the panel on Solar Power which was the platform for some interesting quotes including my quote from the title of this post. You can see some of the other conference quotes here.

On Saturday, August 29th groSolar’s relay team “Speed of Solar” participated in the 4th annual CHaD Half Marathon. This was a fund raising event for the  Children’sHospital at Dartmouth that groSolar proudly sponsored. The CHaD Half Marathon was a fun filled event regardless of the less than desirable conditions, the event included a walking course, the half marathon itself, as well as an attempt to break the world record for most people dressed up as superheroes in one place – this record attempt was to signify the many heros that help to save children’s lives each day at the Children’s Hospital at Dartmouth. The Guinness Book of World Records people were on hand to count up each and every super hero – the record was previously held at 106 people and was successfully broken with a stifling number of 1,016 people dressed up as superheroes on the Dartmouth Green in Hanover, NH.

Team “Speed of Solar” consisted of team Captain Dawn “The Princess of Power“ Martin – Marketing Coordinator here at groSolar, Gaelan “Able to Leap Tall Buildings in A Single Bound“  Brown – VP of Marketing, and Noah “Faster Than A Speeding Bullet” Tuthill – Solar Design Engineer. Team “Speed of Solar” completed the 13.1 mile race in 1 hour 58 minutes and 33 seconds, finishing 59th out of 98 relay teams averaging a 9 minute 3 second mile.

groSolar is proud to have such an active and positive roll in the community and employees willing to go out and punish themselves in the remnant effects of a tropical storm for such a good cause!

Thank you team “Speed of Solar”! We are proud of you!

The Start

Dawn "The Princess Of Power" Martin Completing the First Leg

The Hand Off to Noah "Faster Than A Speeding Bullet" Tuthill

Gaelan "Able to Leap Buildings in A Single Bound" Brown Completing the Race

groSolar held our annual company picnic for our office in White River Junction, VT. Jeff & Dori manned the grills and we enjoyed some fun lawn games. Check out Jeff Wolfe’s horseshoe throwing form below! All of this despite the torrential rain and lightning. Now, if only we could harness the power of lightning, too!

Shelly Bragg, our HR Director, has thrown a shoe or two before!

Jeff Wolfe aiming for a ringer!

Our Inside Sales crew

Below are some comments from a session I moderated at PV America in Philadelphia on June 9:

The confluence of events that has brought us here today is staggering.

Once upon a time, a husband and wife decided to leave Chicago and return to Vermont to “simplify” their lives, and follow their passion to create a small solar energy company. Then they come to understand the magnitude of climate change, and this couple decides they should work on solving it. (Naiveté has always been a strong suit). And so groSolar began.

Business school case studies will be written about this time in the solar industry, and the business transformations that occurred. Read the rest of this entry »

This past winter as the snow was flying in Vermont and the wind was howling, we installed a 58 kW solar array at Farm-Way in Bradford, VT. By December Farm-Way was making approximately 43% of their electrical needs with their new solar system. Farm-Way hosted a ribbon cutting ceremony to celebrate their solar installation and Vermont Governor Jim Douglas was on hand to speak and cut the ribbon. This system saves approximately 76,000 pounds of carbon dioxide annually, equivalent to 11 passenger cars off the road or planting 1500 tree seedlings and growing them for 10 years. Not only is Farm-Way making clean solar electricity but they are becoming more energy efficient overall thus utilizing the solar power they are creating to supply the majority of their electrical needs. You can see a live stream of their solar system here.

groSolar participated for the first time in Strolling of the Heifers this past Saturday in Brattleboro, VT. This annual event attracts about 50,000 people who come to see the heifer parade (trivia: a heifer is a cow who has not had a calf yet) and to educate the public about sustainable local agriculture. We got to interact with some heifers, met some great people and the groSolar Prius even got in on the action with cow spots! Mark your calendar for next year’s Strolling of the Heifers on June 5, 2010.

I am at the North American Climate presenter’s Summit. I am privileged, and burdened, by being one of the 1200 people in the US trained by Al Gore to deliver his climate slideshow. I say privileged because it is an incredible group of people and fantastic training. I say burdened because, well, ignorance is bliss, and not only am I not allowed to be ignorant, I am required to understand and spread both the message of the crisis confronting us and the solutions we must undertake immediately.

We’re getting updated science from some of the leaders in climate science. We’re getting information on human health effects (right now while I’m multi-tasking and typing this actually). We’re getting information on the just released draft of the Waxman -Markey climate bill. And of course, we’re getting motivation and direction for immediate action.

The overriding message is that the time is now, this is the moment. Historians look back through time and note those periods when significant change happened. It is unusual to be able to understand at the time of occurrence, that this is an historic moment in the history of the world. This is such a moment, such a time.
Read the rest of this entry »