Armed with well-honed leadership skills and a strong work ethic, it comes as no surprise that our trusted former military members continue to make an impact long after their service comes to an end. This is where Nexamp’s story begins.
Iraq war veteran, Co-founder of Nexamp, Senior Vice President of Asset Management, and solar energy champion, Will Thompson has spent the last 12 years providing the leadership, knowledge, and expertise necessary to transition Nexamp from a team of two friends working out of a garage to a leading solar innovator at the forefront of the energy revolution.
In 2005, while Will’s best friend and co-founder of Nexamp, Dan Leary, was serving in Kuwait, he was also completing his MBA from the Isenberg School of Management at UMASS. Dan was writing his thesis on a solar panel installation company right around the time Al Gore released his global warming documentary, An Inconvenient Truth. Inspired by the call to climate action, Dan completed his army service and started convincing friends and family to let him install solar PV and solar thermal systems on their homes.
After about a year of working out of his garage, Dan approached Will and the duo made a go of it fulltime in February of 2007. The team was copiously committed to getting their company off the ground while providing people with access to clean energy.
Nexamp’s business model originated as a turnkey, vertically-integrated contractor supplying renewable energy solutions. These solutions included solar PV, solar thermal, micro-wind, geothermal, efficient lighting and commercial energy efficiency modeling and applications. The company initially focused on small municipal and residential solar arrays, and gradually increased its ability to implement larger commercial and industrial projects. Dan and Will soon realized that the way to really add value to the company was to be an independent power producer and finance and own these projects long-term. Now, Nexamp develops, builds, owns, and operates its solar assets, providing expertise throughout the entire project’s lifetime. The develop, finance, build, own and operate model is fairly rare in the industry. And this unique fully-integrated approach carries a lot of value in the solar space.
As a Senior Vice President, Will leads the Operations and Maintenance (O&M) team as well as the Nexamp Asset Management Services (NAMS) while overseeing the Nexamp Energy Center (NEC) where our team is continually monitoring our projects to ensure peak performance and optimal returns. The NAMS team manages the sale of renewable energy assets, net metering credits and any additional revenue streams while the O&M team maintains Nexamp-owned assets and 3rd party arrays to optimize output and maximize revenue for our partners.
Through his inspiring, decade-long plus career at Nexamp, Will continues to do his part to help enable the transition of our energy economy from carbon to renewables. And his favorite part?
Being able to tell his children that when he goes to work every day, his team is making clean, renewable energy directly from the sun.