SCOTT SKLAR IS A STRAIGHT- SHOOTER WHEN DISCUSSING CLEAN ENERGY
for more than 35 years, getting his start in the U.S. Senate as an aide and then energy staffer during the oil embargo of 1974. He then worked for a small national laboratory on clean-energy field applications before transitioning to lead an environmentally or- ganized non-profit advocating clean energy during the Reagan administration. Sklar was executive director of the Solar Energy In- dustries Association, Washington, D.C., for 15 years, and for the last 13 years, he has been operating his own technology optimization company, The Stella Group Ltd., which has offices in Washington and North Arlington, Va. The Stella Group blends energy efficiency with renewable-energy technologies for For- tune 500 companies, government and the U.S. military. Sklar also practices what he preaches. He
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lives in a zero-energy 1921 Sears kit home, and his North Arlington office also is a ze- ro-energy building. The Washington office, which overlooks Lafayette Park in front of the White House, features solar modules from 12 different companies. In total, he has applied 45 different clean-energy technologies on his
cott Sklar could be the “poster child” for the clean-energy in- dustry. He has been in the field
buildings, including fuel cells, geothermal, solar and wind. Sklar offers tours of his home and offices twice per week, 50 weeks per year. “I do tours and training sessions be-
cause engineers and architects have read about these technologies, but they’ve never touched them or seen them,” Sklar says. “They have these crazy ideas about why they won’t work and what they cost. I tease them that I’m going to drag them into the 21st cen- tury if it kills me.” Sklar agreed to speak with retrofit about
some of the misconceptions about re- newable energy, including financing and the future of the marketplace. His no-non- sense style is a reminder that we’re at the beginning of what is an exciting transition toward clean energy.
going bankrupt. If manufacturers are going bankrupt, how is the installed cost of solar going to decrease?
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SKLAR: Actually the cost is coming way down. Bankruptcy is just a state of cash flow. Installers install solar from many different companies and, by the way, I have Uni-Solar on all three of my personal installations as
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We hear a lot about American solar companies, like Uni-Solar,
I do tours and train- ing sessions because engineers and archi- tects have read about [clean-energy] tech- nologies, but they’ve never touched them or seen them. They have these crazy ideas about why they won’t work and what they cost. I tease them that I’m going to drag them into the 21st century if it kills me.”