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Maryland — SolaREIT has announced two new hires and the expansion of the company’s leadership team.
Laura Klein will serve as the company’s Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer and Jeff Gorman will serve as their Senior Vice President of Business Development. SolaREIT is bringing innovative new models for financing solar to the solar industry.
The company, launched in late 2020, is actively looking to partner with project owners, solar developers, and landowners to provide innovative financing options for land purchases and solar lease ‘buy-outs.’
“We’re extremely excited to be adding Laura and Jeff to our team,” says Laura Pagliarulo, President of SolaREIT. “The depth and breadth of experience and expertise they bring to the leadership team will be instrumental to executing SolaREIT’s mission. SolaREIT is expanding financing choices that will help the solar industry continue to grow and thrive— providing farmers and landowners with more options for their land, and developers and project owners innovative structures to reduce their lease payments.”
Laura Klein, CFO and COO, SolaREIT
Laura has developed over 1 GW of utility-scale solar energy projects and closed approximately $1 billion in financing for small to mid-sized projects over her more than 15 years in the industry. She has worked across the energy industry including with electric utilities, independent power producers, developers, start-ups, VCs, non-profits, and multi-laterals. Prior to joining SolaREIT, she founded Oriole Solar, a consultant to solar asset owners focused on origination, development and M&A in the Southeast U.S., and a partner in KL Solar Development. From 2017-2019, she was Managing Director for Development at Eagle Solar Group, a joint venture between DEPCOM Power Inc. and D.E. Shaw Renewable Investments. She began her career in renewables at SunEdison in the project finance group, rising to Managing Director for Project Finance and later Managing Director for Development for SunEdison’s distributed generation portfolio. Prior to SunEdison, she held roles in finance at Duke Energy and the World Bank’s Carbon Funds, where she developed low-carbon projects in developing countries.
Jeff Gorman, Senior Vice President of Business Development, SolaREIT
Jeff brings more than two decades of experience in the energy and renewable energy industries. Prior to joining SolaREIT, Jeff was a Director on the business development team originating, acquiring, and financing commercial distributed generation and utility-scale solar and solar + storage generation projects for AES. His first role in the solar industry was as a sales director at SunEdison where he led solar distributed generation project origination and development efforts in the northeast markets. Prior to SunEdison, Jeff was a director at IVG Energy where he facilitated renewable energy transactions to help utilities and other retail electric providers with the procurement of eligible renewable energy products to meet their RPS obligations.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory estimates that solar will cover 3 million acres by 2030. While the majority of solar projects are on leased property, SolaREIT can offer alternative options to developers and project owners that reduce their lease costs. Earlier this year, SolaREIT announced their “Pre-Paid Solar Land Lease” allowing solar developers to provide landowners with up-front payment for up to 30-years of lease payments.
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