Solar
Columbia Business School’s Climate Knowledge Initiative provides business leaders with the curated, actionable knowledge needed to pick investable and scalable green technologies, while unapologetically flagging areas where business and public interests diverge. Here you will find executive briefs, business case studies, PowerPoints, PDFs and more to share, adapt, and use to chart a high-efficiency, low-carbon path.
Key Insights and Cases
ELP Greenport: Scaling Community Solar
What is the future of community solar development projects and what challenges need to be addressed for scalability?
In this case study, MBA students meet Wendy De Wolf, CBS ’18, founder of East Light Partners Greenport Solar, a 5-MW community solar project in Hudson, New York.
Scaling Solar: Four Key Points
As a solar developer, Wendy De Wolf ’18 often has to weigh project costs and benefits verging on the complicated, opaque, and even contradictory.
After finishing her undergraduate degree, De Wolf took a job with Energy Management Inc., where she helped build the firm’s solar group with her colleague Jamie Fordyce. In 2016, De Wolf and Fordyce spun out the company’s solar arm to co-found their own solar project development business, East LightPartners (ELP). That year, De Wolf also started her graduate studies at Columbia Business School.