Jim Walker, P.E. | Founder & Principal

Jim has worked for corporations, municipalities, and utilities for over 45 years. He analyzes clean energy technologies, policies, and investments.

Jim Walker’s Experience

Solar PV Project Development

Jim led Ameresco’s Northeast solar PV project development team to design, permit, finance, construct, own, and operate solar PV projects.
Projects were built on school roofs, parking lots and garages, highways, corporate data centers, airport terminals, universities, and large land sites for utility-scale solar PV projects.
Starting & Growing Businesses

Before founding Cleantech Adoption, Jim started and grew Ameresco's profitable East Region solar PV business.
Jim also founded and built XENERGY's Energy Supply Management business to help industrial plants stay in business with deregulated, lower-cost natural gas.
Helping Entrepreneurs Launch Businesses

Jim volunteered to help clean technology start-ups at the MIT Enterprise Forum and MassVentures. At MIT, Jim created and co-founded the successful Ignite Clean Energy Business Plan Competition, which was the forerunner to the Cleantech Open.
Conducting Investment Analyses

For Ameresco, Jim prepared financial Pro Forma analyses for solar PV project development and construction approvals by the firm's CEO. These analyses led to profitable operating projects.
Analyzing Business Strategies

Jim analyzed energy industry Business-to-Business (B2B) trends for Forrester Research's Fortune 500 clients.
He also wrote executive reports on natural gas supply/demand market trends for Global Insight.
For Cambridge Energy Research Associates (CERA), he prepared a 20-year scenario analysis of plausible futures for retail electric utilities.
Advocating Regulatory Changes

To open utilities to supply competition, Jim successfully testified before state public utility commissions in Kentucky, Rhode Island, and Pennsylvania when he was Energy Manager for GTE Corporation.
Jim also advocated at Ameresco to support the solar PV industry in Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Maine, and Rhode Island.
Framing Customer Solutions

For Sun Microsystems, Jim met with electric utility CFOs and CIOs to share his energy and technology market insights on cyber-security, customer metering, billing, and customer services using Sun's solution suite. The goal was to help the sales staff change the customer conversation from commodity product selling to solution selling.
Awards, Licenses, and Patents

Heat pump patent from Carrier Corporation
MIT 2006 Presidential Citation Award
MIT Enterprise Forum’s All-Star Volunteer Award.
Licensed professional mechanical engineer (PE)
Education

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.) Sloan School, Master in Business Administration
The University of Massachusetts, Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering