This article is sponsored by REC Americas. In this Voices interview, Solar Power World spoke with Brian Ghiglia, Vice President Sales at REC Americas, about the leadership lessons he’s learned throughout his career and how they guide his approach in a fast-evolving solar market.
Editor’s note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Solar Power World: Tell us about your background and what led you to the renewable energy industry.
Brian Ghiglia: I started out with a business background in school. Like most people when you graduate college, you’re not sure what you want to be when you grow up. I’m still not entirely sure. In the early 2000s, I had a friend who had started in solar, and I remember thinking that renewable energy was exciting and something that aligned with my values. At the time, I was working in commercial development for laundromats and decided to start exploring renewable energy. This was 2005, and I thought I wanted to start my own business. After doing some research, I concluded that it was too late, that the industry was too developed. Boy was I wrong. I ended up joining an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) company in my hometown to get a foot in the door. I quickly realized that I was wrong about the solar industry — we were still in the very nascent stages of growth.
Ultimately, what led me here was an opportunity to participate in something that I value — combating climate change — but also something that I thought represented real economic value. It was a real “win-win.” Initially, I was primarily motivated to deploy as much renewable energy as fossil, fight the good fight and do my part to curb climate change. As I got further along in my career, it became clear that solar was a game changer financially. It created tangible savings for all categories, residential commercial and utility.
I began my career at REC Solar, an EPC company started by two Cal Poly grads. At the time, we were the largest EPC in the U.S., with a contract with Costco. My first few years were spent standing in Costco asking people if they wanted to go solar. We used to do 10-day road shows, where I would stand in a Costco all day talking to people about going solar for their home. It was a wild time; people knew very little about solar. In fact, I often had to explain that we were selling electricity, not models of the solar system. I couldn’t have asked for a better way to learn how to sell solar, and what drove homeowners’ purchasing decisions. That company later partnered with REC Group, which is the company I work for now. Two companies with the same name but entirely different businesses came together. Two years later, Sunrun acquired Mainstream Energy, the umbrella company. I moved into Sales Effectiveness at Sunrun while REC Group and REC Commercial took their own paths.
I spent about nine years with Sunrun, heading up Sales Effectiveness. My primary responsibilities were to manage the consumer experience, improve our sales efficiency and manage our sales trainings efforts. During this time, we were moving away from paper contracts and towards e-signatures, and building out the foundations for virtual sales proposals, which is standard in the industry today.
In 2019, after 10 years at Sunrun, I returned to REC Group, which is the solar panel manufacturer. The 11 years I spent at Sunrun really helped me cut my teeth in the residential segment. I learned a lot about the consumer experience and how to simplify the sales process. I also learned a lot about sales management and how to organize and motivate teams. My new role at REC was to stand up a residential business unit for a manufacturer. That meant hiring and training a new team and developing a go-to-market strategy for residential products.
Our play book was to create value beyond the module. Modules have increasingly become commoditized. The reason I came over to REC Group was because we were investing in a new technology: heterojunction technology. I saw a real opportunity to disrupt the residential segment by introducing a premium product at an affordable price, one that maximized homeowner savings.
I built on what I’d developed over the prior decade — sales training, sales management and sales enablement for the dealers that would be selling our products. For the past six years, I’ve been building out that platform as well as a route to market through distribution. We started with probably 5% or less market share, and in the past three or four years, we’ve grown to become number two. I’m very proud of what we’ve achieved.
How does REC stand out from other manufacturers in our industry?
REC Group has been around for nearly 30 years. We’ve participated in every part of the supply chain: wafers, cells and modules.
In more recent history, we’ve taken all that experience and expertise and focused on advanced cell technology, which achieves what consumers care about most: the highest energy yield. Whereas many other manufacturers focus on high-volume manufacturing, REC Group focuses on getting the most out of that module, producing the most kilowatt-hours.
We are a technology leader with an emphasis on research and development, trying to get the most efficiency out of every single lot that we produce. Ultimately, that translates into value for the end consumer, be it a utility project or asset owner, a C&I building owner, or a homeowner. Our advances in cell technology create more electricity over the life of the module, which results in more savings for the customer.
Our heterojunction technology allows us to convert more sunlight into electricity. The key difference is that HJT uses both N-type cell and amorphous silicon. We sandwich the N-type cell between two layers of amorphous silicon. This gives us increased bi-facial production and better access to the light spectrum, which results in more electricity over the system’s life.
Does your experience on the residential installation side of the industry influence how you approach the module manufacturing space?
Undoubtedly. Manufacturers often focus on their product exclusively: manufacturing efficiency, product design and cost control, but they can miss what the customer actually needs. My residential background allowed me to look at product development from the customer’s point of view.
For example, we redesigned our frame to be thinner so we could pack more onto a pallet and reduce logistics costs. But we also ensured compatibility with racking and inverters. That step — optimizing not just the module but how it integrates with the rest of the system — was critical to our product launch.
In residential, you’re also dealing with things like weight limits, design constraints and limited roof space. Being able to understand those variables and have that inform your product development was certainly something that set me up for success.
We have also invested heavily in sales enablement. A lot of manufacturers just focus on specs and price, but we go further. We provide training for our dealers on how to sell solar. How do you pitch a premium product? How do you articulate the financial benefits to a business owner? How to review a utility bill with your customer? It goes well beyond the product alone. How do you more effectively convince your customer that solar is the right solution for them?
What managerial strategies do you believe are most important for leading a high-performing sales team? How have they contributed to your success at REC?
Early in my career, I moved from sales into sales management, then eventually into sales enablement, which focused on the training platforms and the consumer experience. Those roles gave me room to experiment, fail and learn from multiple managerial strategies. I’ve also had mentors who helped me learn and navigate the challenges of managing sales organizations.
Three key principles guide my approach. First, define and align around a clear set of values that are consistent across the entire team, not just the sales team. At REC, our core goals are to win in the market, have fun and make money. That may sound simple, but doing all three consistently is hard. We work with senior leadership to define and broadcast those values across the company.
Second, establish a scoreboard. Sales teams need a clear, trackable way to measure performance — like players in a game. The scoreboard has to align with your values and be something they can control and improve upon.
Third, lead with a servant mindset. I don’t ask people to do something I’m not familiar with or wouldn’t do myself. That can be tricky as a sales leader because you also have to enable your sales team to learn, grow and develop.
At the end of the day, you can have the best strategies, but it won’t work if you don’t have your team’s trust. You don’t earn trust from your team unless you have core values that are consistently modeled, and you have to lead from the front lines. But once you have a foundation of trust, you can have candid conversations about how we are performing, how we need to improve, or how we need to overdrive.
On a monthly or quarterly basis, we are always asking ourselves: are we hitting those values? If not, we course-correct together.
It’s been a very tumultuous year for the solar industry so far. Do you think the industry has what it takes to withstand this uncertainty?
The industry has always been turbulent — what some call the “solar coaster.” I once worked with a CEO who hated that phrase. The reality is this is an extremely turbulent industry, and this year is no different — in fact, probably more accelerated.
Do I think the industry is going to prevail? Absolutely, 100%. Do I think we can withstand the turbulence? Without a doubt.
We’ve faced several existential challenges in the past 20 years: the 2008 financial crisis, COVID-related supply disruptions, and now major policy uncertainty. We have weathered each of them. In 2008, we saw that solar was recession-proof; consumers still wanted it. During COVID, despite massive supply chain disruption, demand held strong. Now, we’re facing policy shifts that could change how we operate in the U.S., but I’m fully confident the industry will adapt and frankly become better for it.
One the industry’s biggest challenges is the cost of acquisition — which remains stubbornly high in the residential segment. If you look at other markets in Europe or Asia, the cost of acquisition is one-tenth of that in the United States. That is something that we as an industry need to begin to curb and bring down. Secondarily, there’s a lot of red tape. It can take a long time to get a system installed and operational. As we look at a changing political landscape with changing incentives and policies, there’s an opportunity for us to streamline those processes, to make it faster and more efficient to go solar.
There will be some growing pains — but there have always been growing pains, whether you’ve been in this for one month, one year, or a decade. I’m very proud of the industry as a whole. I think it attracts passionate people who are solution-oriented and generally highly energetic. If you put those three variables together, you can solve problems and navigate a multitude of hurdles.
There may be situations where there are lower incentives or no incentives for a homeowner to go solar. While that may seem bad, the alternative is purchasing electricity from the utility, which is only getting more expensive. The reality is that consumers have very little choice when it comes to purchasing electricity. You have to work with your utility, or you can go solar.
When you consider C&I or Utility, solar is widely proven to be the lowest cost, and the fastest form of energy to deploy at scale. Base load demand is increasing in the United States, driven by data centers and AI. Solar, and renewable energy in general, is the best technology to meet the needs of today.
For the first time in the last decade, we’re actually seeing that aggregate demand has increased. So, take away the incentives. If you just look at it on a market basis—if demand is increasing and we need to bring new generation online—renewable energy is going to be the fastest and most cost-effective solution.
Broadly speaking, regardless of which segment you look at, the intrinsic value that our products offer is going to remain. It just may mean we have to come up with a different, more efficient way to market that product, or to install that product, and ultimately to get that product to the end consumer. But without a doubt, we have the right people and, most importantly, the right attitude to get that done.
For more information, visit recgroup.com/en-us.