By Daniel Ketyer
Team Members: Jennifer Sekar, Jen Williams, Daniel Ketyer, James Ferguson, Ellis Baehr

Perhaps the most important component of my academic experience at Duke has been the opportunity to work on teams to solve complex problems. The pinnacle of this collaborative experience has been this year’s Distributed Solar Generation Bass Connections project. The project brought together staff from the Duke Carbon Offsets Initiative, faculty from the Sanford School, Law School, and Nicholas Institute, graduate students from the Nicholas School, and undergrads majoring in engineering, environmental sciences, and public policy. I worked on an interesting challenge with intelligent and hard working people to create legitimate benefits for Duke University, employees of the university, and the Durham community. How was our team able to work together to accomplish our task of making solar installation easy and affordable for Duke employees? It all comes down to the anatomy of our team.

#1: The Team Leads – Staff

For our team to be successful, we needed a team lead who made expectations clear from the beginning. At the beginning of the year, Charles Adair, Program Manager of the Duke Carbon Offsets Initiative (DCOI), laid out 2 key deliverables: a scoping document of the residential solar industry due at the end of first semester, and a program development plan for an employee program due at the end of the second semester. We quickly realized, however, that our expectations were not ambitious enough. With help from Charles and Jason Elliot, Program Coordinator at the DCOI, we took our program development plan and turned it into an actual program. Charles’ vision and commitment to our work maximized the chances of our success.

#2: The Team Leads – Faculty

Our team was incredibly lucky to be supported from engaged and experienced faculty. Billy Pizer, Professor in the Sanford School of Public Policy, and Tim Profeta, Director of the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, each provided support in both the research stage and the program development stage, sharing their expertise on energy and environmental policy. Ryke Longest, Director of the Environmental Law and Policy Clinic at the Duke School of Law, and Michelle Nowlin, Supervising Attorney in the Environmental Law and Policy Clinic, also supported the team. Ryke provided context of the legal landscape in the North Carolina utility space, while Michelle assisted with our team’s understanding of law while developing the program. Ultimately, our team would not have been successful without the expertise and commitment from our faculty leads.

#3: The Grad Students

Ellis Baehr and Jennifer Williams provided outstanding leadership throughout both semesters. They brought their respective experiences in the solar field, as well as their coursework as Nicholas School students to keep the team focused and informed on the dynamic issues in residential solar. Jennifer and Ellis also acted as the primary liaisons between students and the community partners. Both graduate students on the team were integral to the success of the project.

#4: The Undergrads

As the less experienced members on the team, us undergrads were not able to provided the expertise in residential solar that our follow teammates could provide. However, we were able to use our skills and interest in the project to drive the team toward our goals. Jennifer Sekar brought her experience in project management and leading teams of engineers, while James Ferguson and I brought our research and policy analysis experience to the team. It was important that we had undergrads with different backgrounds and experiences in order maximize the perspectives of the team.

In the end, our team was successful not just because we brought different skills and experiences to the table, but because we were able to work so well together. We could not have accomplished everything we did without the key components of our team. And ultimately, we created a program that we hope will have a lasting positive impact on the university and its employees.