Candela Renewables, LLC360 Pine Street, Suite 500, San Francisco, California, United States

Candela Renewables was formed by Brian Kunz and Nik Novograd, who worked together at NextLight Renewable Power, a company that Brian co-founded in 2008. NextLight brought together a team of highly experienced professionals from the power industry to focus on what was then an emerging industry: solar power. Solar power had previously been deployed through small photovoltaic projects, mostly on rooftops, and larger solar thermal projects using technologies such as parabolic trough mirrors. NextLight took the logical next step by developing much larger projects, utilizing photovoltaic equipment, which was rapidly becoming more cost efficient. These projects broke records for scale, helped drive down costs, and are now successfully operating in a number of states. Much of our core team has worked together at NextLight and First Solar, Inc., its acquirer, where Brian ran North and South American project development and origination.

Candela’s mission is to develop the most reliable, cost effective, financeable and environmentally beneficial solar power projects in the United States. We believe that the transition to a low carbon economy will be accelerated by the availability of competitively priced renewable energy, so we are intensely focused on lowering the cost of solar power. As a technology-agnostic company, we are able to deploy the best solar equipment, as well as complementary technologies, such as battery storage, for the benefit of project owners, power purchasers, landowners and other constituents. Recognizing that financeability is a key ingredient in the success of any capital-intensive undertaking, we are developing projects that are structured to provide predictable and resilient returns to investors and lenders.