Michael Sizemore ’12, M.S. ’14 is a business analyst for Sunrun, a San Francisco–based residential solar electricity provider. He was introduced to solar energy in his first year at SCU through the 2009 Solar Decathlon House. Mike and his team worked on the 800-square-foot solar-powered Refract House (located between Malley Fitness Center and Campus Safety), which went on to win third place in the U.S. Department of Energy’s 2009 Solar Decathlon. Recently Mike worked in Pune, India, to design an off-grid solar panel refrigeration system for low-income local farmers through Villgro Innovations Foundation.

 

Creative solutions (like the off-grid refrigeration system Mike and his team designed) are needed to succeed in the renewable energy industry. For the future of renewable energy, Mike envisions a “free and distributed system where everyone can choose the best way to support themselves and more specifically, being able to produce the type of energy you want to produce where you want to produce it.”