Avoiding the Growing Pains of Community Solar

Dan Chwastyk joined SEPA in 2015, where he works as Utility Strategy Manager on the Advisory Services team. Dan helps utilities develop and execute customer facing renewable energy offerings and leads SEPA’s research into community solar programs across the country.

Dan formerly worked for Navigant where he worked primarily on energy efficiency, smart grid and demand response issues for government, utility and private sector clients. He holds his bachelor’s in structural engineering from Penn State University and his master’s of business administration from Wake Forest University.

Brian Newton is the City Administrator for the City of Fremont, Nebraska. Newton has more than 30-years managing public power and cooperative utilities in several states, including Nebraska, Ohio, Alaska, and Indiana. While in Alaska, Newton initiated the construction of the first utility scale wind farm in the state. Newton moved back to Nebraska when he accepted the position at the City of Fremont in June 2015.

Brian is a Nebraska native. He earned his bachelor’s degree in business from Concordia University in Seward, Nebraska; a MBA from Ashland University in Ashland, Ohio; and a Doctorate in Management from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio.

Deborah became the County’s first Sustainability Officer in 2011 and is Director of the Cook County Department of Environment and Sustainability which regulates air emissions and solid waste facilities, monitors air quality, and works with local communities to clean up and redevelop brownfields. Projects include an award-winning program fostering reuse of building demolition debris, and boosting community solar energy in the region. Cook County has reduced its corporate Greenhouse Gas emissions 22% in six years. As Deputy Director of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources she oversaw the State’s first water supply planning and spearheaded Conservation Congress, a working partnership of hundreds of recreation and natural resources constituents. She has an M.A. in Public Policy from the University of Chicago.

Jill Cliburn is Principal of Cliburn and Associates, a long-established firm that uses a custom-team approach to meet clean-energy research, program design, project management, market assessment, and policy needs. Ms. Cliburn is currently focused on assisting utilities and stakeholders to develop community solar and local solar-plus projects of all kinds. As Principal Investigator of the Community Solar ValueProject, co-funded by SunShot, she worked with Extensible Energy, other firms and utilities to establish best practices for these types of programs and to assist more than a dozen utilities with their planning. Jill also serves as a management consultant, specializing in cross-departmental strategies required for DER success today. As a coach and consultant to the Solar in Your Community Challenge, she is adapting best practices for local, low- and moderate-income solar markets. Ms. Cliburn has built her expertise on experience in integrated resource planning and its component parts, from solar, wind and biomass, to energy efficiency, demand response, and storage, to new integrative technologies. Her clients have included utilities, national utility and professional associations, all levels of government and stakeholder groups. She is a frequent conference speaker and author, including reports for NREL, APPA, NRECA and SEPA, and industry media. Jill serves on the Board of the American Solar Energy Society.