User:Scott Sklar

Scott Sklar is a Board Member of Climate Lab. Scott is the President of the strategic marketing and policy firm, The Stella Group, Ltd, which he founded in 1995 and came on full-time to lead in 1999. The firm specializes in blending technologies and aggregated financing (including leasing) for projects, to assist companies to scale-up market penetration for distributed clean energy applications. The firm, which has offices in Washington, D.C., and Arlington, VA, also works to facilitate federal and state policies that expand markets for clean energy applications. From May – August 2004, Scott served (part time) as Interim Executive Director of the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) assisting the industry in finding a new Executive Director and tracking policy and being their national spokesperson.

Previously, Scott served as Executive Director for 15 years of two national trade associations concurrently, the Solar Energy Industries Association and the National BioEnergy Industries Association. He also co-founded and ran for three years the U.S. export consortium of all the renewable energy trade associations, the U.S. Export Council for Renewable Energy, and co-founded its sister energy efficiency entity, the U.S. Export Council for Energy Efficiency, where he served on its Board.

Prior of running trade associations, Scott was Political Director of The Solar Lobby for two years, a renewable energy advocacy group founded by the big nine U.S. environmental organizations. And for three years previous to joining the advocacy organization, Scott served as Washington Director for two years and Acting RD&D Director for one year at the National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT), a federally-funded applied technology institution promoting renewables and energy efficiency for local communities both in the US and globally.

Scott started his energy career serving as a military and energy aide to Senator Jacob K Javits (NY) on his Washington personal and Committee staff for nine years. During his time as Senate staff, he co-founded the Congressional Solar caucus in the mid-1970’s, when most of the renewable energy legislation first was passed by the U.S. Congress as a result of the first and second oil embargoes.

Scott has coauthored two books, The Forbidden Fuel: A History of Power Alcohol, published in 1985, which was updated and re-released in early 2010 by University NE Press, and a Consumer Guide to Solar Energy, first published in 1998 and in its third printing as of 2005. His ongoing contributions to the Q&A Column appear in the largest clean energy web portal, RenewableEnergyAccess.com.

Scott serves as Steering Committee Chair of the Sustainable Energy Coalition, composed of the renewable energy and energy efficiency trade associations and analytical groups, and sits on the national Boards of Directors of the non-profit Business Council for Sustainable Energy, Renewable Energy Policy Project, and the Sustainable Buildings Industry Council. Sklar was appointed in 2006 to the North American Advisory Committee of REEEP, a G-8 and United Nations- sponsored clean energy initiative. He  was also appointed in April 2007 to National Advisory Council for Environmental Policy & Technology (NACEPT) of USEPA. 

The Stella Group office building in Virginia has a 1.0 kW photovoltaic system (solar roofing shingles by UniSolar), a 0.3 kW small wind turbine (by Southwest Windpower), an advanced 'smart' battery system (by GridPoint), and the first leased commercial 5 KW fuel cell in the U.S. (GenCore by Plug Power).  The building also has a passive solar design with R-38 insulation.  The Stella Group office building in DC has a 1.5 KW photovoltaics system, financed in part by an award from the DC Government and composed of modules from 10 different PV companies.

Scott's Arlington, VA home has a 2 kW photovoltaics system, which includes 0.5 kW of photovoltaics ‘peal-and-stick’ panels on the front porch’s metal-seamed roof, along with 1.5 kW of photovoltaics by Solarex, a solar water heating system by SunEarth, a LO/MIT thermal barrier by Solec, an EarhLinked direct-exchange ground-coupled (geothermal) heat pump, double-paned argon-filled windows, R-38 insulation, and energy efficient fixtures and appliances such as the Energy Star Cabrio Washer.  Scott owns a Prius -- a 2005 hybrid which routinely achieves 45 – 55 mpg.