Duncan Manley '20

Intern with Common Energy, Summer 2019

Common Energy is an NYC based community solar customer management platform founded by a group of executives in the residential solar business looking to capitalize on an emerging market trend. While residential solar panels require both financial resources and a physical roof, community solar, when regionally available, is accessible to almost anyone with an electricity bill. As clean energy initiatives have gained momentum in various states around the country, the financial incentives associated with participating in a community distributed generation (CDG) project have increased. As a result, developers in those particular states have begun focusing their efforts on arrays intended for community use. The builders of these community solar farms, however, often do not have the time or resources to manage hundreds of customers per project. Common Energy's business is to acquire and manage those customers for developers across a growing number of states including New York, Maryland, Illinois, and Rhode Island. Our platform allows the public to access energy that is both clean and cheaper than its fossil fuel alternative.

My role at Common Energy was to help build scalable processes as the company navigates this emerging market. I spent a lot of my time creating a system for estimating the financial benefits our prospective clients would receive as a result of signing up for Common Energy's service, and I created sales presentations used to share that information with some of our larger corporate customers. Additionally, I worked with various data analysis platforms to identify opportunities for web optimization and helped manage our reporting data to improve both internal and external accountability.

I loved being part of a small startup team and working for a cause I am passionate about. The small company size allowed me to work with the entire team, including our CEO. It was very exciting to work in an emerging industry with a leading player as we work to fight climate change by making clean energy accessible and affordable for families around the country!