TEAM MEMBER INTERVIEW - Brendan Smith
What is your education? I have a BS in Biology with a Chemistry Minor, but my career path diverged from my education background. Prior to solar, my career background has been in commercial construction consulting focused on commercial roofing and hurricane wind/weatherproofing of commercial building exteriors. I made the jump to solar to better align with my personal focus on sustainability.
How did you find ESC and what drew you to our company? As it happened, ESC found me through solar industry word of mouth. ESC was interested in building a new solar division and through industry partners found/hired me and Kayte Morales to help build this division.
In your role what do you hope to accomplish? In the short term, I hope to see us build a self-sustaining solar/renewables division here in CT and surrounding states. In the longer term, I’d like to see our reach expand to other states and even nationally.
What is unique about your job? My position is unique in the way that it straddles sales and operations sides of the energy division. I see my role as a bridge between sales and operations, so that we are making appropriate promises to our customers on the sales side and keeping those promises on the operations side.
What types of projects excite you? I’m excited by projects that have high public visibility. I like when customers are excited to show off the solar on their buildings. Of course, if this is not what the customer wants, solar can be nearly invisible when placed on a flat roof building.
What do you like about your job? I like that we have tools available to accurately estimate the solar production and electric bill savings from solar. With my science background, I’m always excited when you can take measurements, create a model, and then verify the real world result to see how accurate your model was.
What about the work you do makes you proud? I love that every successful project ends in an actual solar installation that I can point to in real life or on google maps. Since systems last for 30+ years, I like that I’ll get to see the results of my work for many years to come.
What has been your favorite project here? I have trouble picking a favorite. I always like the next and newest project that I’m working on. One of the things I’m most excited about lately is the integration of battery storage into our solar projects. It allows customers to use their solar energy in smarter ways to optimize the savings they see on their bills.
What do you like about the work you do at ESC? The think I like most about ESC is the whole building approach. Since ESC is knowledgeable on almost any building needs, it allows us to use many different technologies in concert to solve problems for our customers.
What makes your job rewarding? What I find most rewarding working in energy and renewables, is that every dollar I earn for my family can be directly correlated to a carbon emission reduction on our electricity grid. I find it rewarding that I can make at least a small contribution to reducing climate change.
FUN FACTS:
Tell us about yourself? I live in Hamden with my wife and two kids Penny and Miles. We’ve lived in the Hamden/New Haven area for around 16 years. Before that we lived in Eugene OR where my wife and I met and then Seattle WA for a few years. My wife works at the Yale School of the Environment, so that’s what has anchored us in the New Haven area.
Do you have any pets? We have four (yikes!) cats that share our home. That’s a lot of cat fuzz!
What do you do in your free time? I spend most of my time with my wife and 12 and 9 year olds. We like bike rides, hiking, camping, traveling and backyard fire pits. Outside of home and work life, I am on the Town of Hamden Energy Use and Climate Change (EUCC) Commission and I serve on the board of a non-profit community resource center in my neighborhood.
