Community solar startup and Princeton Alumni Entrepreneurs Fund portfolio company Solstice is shining brightly with great news:
Elemental Excelerator, a Hawaii-based innovation accelerator, has selected Solstice as one of its first seven companies for their Equity & Access track cohort for 2019. Solstice announced this week that Elemental Excelerator will invest up to $750,000 in the company to expand its community solar services to California. Each year, Elemental Excelerator invests in 15 to 20 companies that best fit their mission to improve systems that impact people's lives: energy, transportation, water, agriculture and beyond. To date, they have awarded $30 million to over 80 companies. “We’re so grateful for Elemental Excelerator’s support for sustainable technologies that directly serve low-income and marginalized communities,” said Solstice CEO and co-founder Steph Speirs *14. “ We’re excited to expand our work in California and to bring solar to more American communities.”
Speirs also recently appeared on WIOX 91.3 FM in the Catskills to discuss how New York residents in Chenango, Otsego, Delaware and surrounding counties can save 10% on their utility bills by enrolling in a community solar garden at no cost.
Also this week, Ascent Conference named Solstice as one of Five Most Electrifying Energy Startups in 2018. Ascent is a two-day conference focused on bringing together senior leaders in the East Coast tech community to learn, collaborate and build the relationships needed to drive meaningful change. Solstice will also be exhibiting at the 2018 conference, scheduled for October 3-4 in New York City.
Sandhya Murali of Solstice participated in the "Climate Solutions for Affordable Housing in NYC" event as a panelist during Climate Week NYC 2018. The panel was hosted by NYC Climate Action Alliance and the New York Environmental Law Leadership Institute and sponsored by the Fordham Social Innovation Collaboratory. The panel explored the "successes and challenges in efforts to decarbonize and increase the resilience of the building sector, particularly with respect to housing that serves low-income populations in New York City."
Earlier this year, the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability announced that Speirs was one of only 20 nominees for the 2018 Pritzker Emerging Environmental Genius Award. The Pritzker Award "aims to recognize an environmental leader, under the age of 40, who is on the verge of making lasting change in the field of environmental sustainability." PEC and Princeton University send congratulations to Speirs and the Solstice team.
To learn more about the Alumni Entrepreneurs Fund, visit the AEF home page.
