Citizens Energy Corporation, a nonprofit launched in 1979 to make life’s most basic needs more affordable, began an aggressive move into solar energy in 2010 to generate revenues to finance its charitable mission. Like other ventures owned by the parent company, Citizens Solar uses business success to finance programs that help with the energy needs of senior citizens and low-income families.
Citizens Solar develops, finances, constructs, owns and operates all of its solar projects. To date, it has completed the construction of a $100 million portfolio of 23 distributed-solar projects totaling 40 megawatts (MW) on the East Coast. It installs solar arrays on capped and closed landfills and has installed and currently operates four landfill solar projects totaling 8.5 MW.
Building on the model pioneered by Citizens Energy founder Joseph P. Kennedy II, a former U.S. congressman who currently serves as the company’s chairman and president, Brian Morrissey has run Citizens Solar since its launch five years ago. As managing director, Morrissey is responsible for overseeing the entire value chain of solar energy, from day-one origination of a project all the way through site selection, permitting, interconnection, preconstruction, construction management, asset management and optimization.
Additionally, Morrissey manages the four-person solar team, ensuring that it is developing projects in a responsible and aggressive manner.
“We really touch on everything from start to finish in the solar space,” Morrissey says. “I oversee new markets and manage existing ones, look at mergers and acquisition activity and ultimately, report back to the CEO.”
Morrissey believes that Citizens Energy’s non-profit mission – drawing revenues from wind and transmission ventures, as well as solar projects – really sets Citizens Energy apart from other energy companies in the industry. “We provide heating oil and natural gas assistance to needy households, as well as homeless shelters and Native American tribes,” Morrissey explains. “Our entrepreneurial success directly benefits the poor. We’re not your typical energy company.”
Changing Markets
Citizens Solar is currently active in Massachusetts, Georgia, New York, New Jersey and Maryland, but is always looking at new markets for solar projects. “We’re a relatively small company, we don’t have a lot of bureaucracy, so our decision-making process is flat and quick,” Morrissey says. “If there’s a new market that my team or I identify as a viable one, we can make the decision in a relatively fast manner.”
The solar market is in a constant state of flux from a regulatory perspective, given the fact that the company is dealing with a different market in each state, with differing incentives and regulations. “If you’re going to be in the solar business, you’ve got to be able to be dynamic and adjust your strategies quickly to account for policy changes,” Morrissey adds.
Citizens Solar accomplishes that by running a lean organization. It also doesn’t have to answer to shareholders, which allows it to be opportunistic when a potential opportunity arises. And, on the contrary, if it needs to exit a market due to policy changes, it can do that quickly by stopping a project and moving onto the next one without leaving any staff behind.
“We’re a handful of people who have an entrepreneurial spirit, who aren’t afraid of new ideas or taking ownership of ideas and running with them,” Morrissey says. “You have to work with the team and take the initiative, execute and drive that to completion to be successful here. That makes individuals and the organization as a whole successful.”
Despite the challenges of a growing industry, Citizens plans to continue growing in the markets it’s already in, along with becoming more diversified by entering new markets when opportunities arise. “We want to grow our asset base to as large as we can handle,” Morrissey says.
“At the end of the day, we want to own and operate assets because the solar industry across the world is extremely dynamic and constantly changing,” he explains. “We think one of the best ways to mitigate that policy risk is to own assets ourselves. Once we own an asset and put it in the ground, we’ve got visibility of the next 20 to 25 years of revenue and income associated with the projects, which provides a lot of stability for us as an organization.”
Citizen Solar’s projects not only benefit the parent organization, but also provide additional tax revenues and electricity savings to municipalities and private entities. Plus, the environmental benefits of renewable energy are well known. And, as time passes and more solar projects are installed throughout the United States, capital costs will shrink, making solar projects even more competitive than they are today.
Morrissey explains that five years in the solar industry is a lifetime for the market. Its first years were dramatically different from today’s environment and success was a gamble. But Morrissey is proud to have grown the business from scratch.
“I like to think that we started a very good, strong, stable solar business out of a simple idea,” he says. “I had the backing and name recognition of Citizens Energy, and with the help of some very good people here, ultimately, we’re developing and building strong solar assets that help Citizens Energy in its corporate mission, as well as helping the energy industry diversify and become more environmentally responsible.”