Recently, we held a roundtable discussion at Tigercomm headquarters in Rosslyn, Virginia with former Virginia Governor (now Senator-elect) Tim Kaine, as well as 10 clean economy business leaders from the mid-Atlantic region. One of those leaders was Anthony Smith of Secure Futures. Here's a brief description of Secure Future's work in helping to build a clean energy economy.
Secure Futures designs, develops and co-finances distributed solar solutions with and for tax-exempt entities to reduce their electricity costs and to protect against future grid price increases through 15 to 25 year solar power purchase agreements (SPPAs) or solar equipment leases. We help customers to execute inter-connect agreements with their local utility companies and local/state governments as needed and required.
In the Tigercomm clean economy forum, Smith noted that "Virginia is one of the least developed states in the country in terms of renewable energy." According to Smith, the "challenge that we find is not in the technology (the technology works)," but with government policy and with big utility companies. For instance, Smith suggested that "market-based incentives for utilities like Dominion [Virginia Power] to encourage private sector investment" in clean energy would be very helpful. Finally, Smith argued that removing barriers to power purchase agreements would spur a "huge spur of investment [in clean energy] by higher ed institutions, municipalities, hospitals, [and] schools that are all waiting on the sidelines because they don't want to have a fight with Dominion."