Sunny skies ahead: Publicly traded Vermont solar company acquires SunCommon
Sept. 17, 2021 | By Lisa Scagliotti 
The South Burlington company iSun has acquired Waterbury-based SunCommon in a $40 million cash and stock deal. Photo by Gordon Miller
A decade into its mission to roll out solar panels across Vermont rooftops, Waterbury-based SunCommon has joined forces with a South Burlington publicly traded solar infrastructure company in a $40 million cash and stock deal.
The announcement was made Sept. 8 that iSun, a firm with 50 years of experience in the solar, electrical and data service industries would acquire SunCommon as a key step in its corporate plan to expand its residential solar energy business across the northeast.
The purchase involves $22.5 million in cash and $17.5 million in iSun stock that includes $1.5 million in working capital for SunCommon and $2.5 million in iSun shares for SunCommon employees.
“Every current employee will receive $2,000 cash,” said SunCommon co-president and co-founder Duane Peterson. The roughly 200 workers based in Waterbury and upstate New York will also receive shares of stock valued at at least $7,500, a meaningful bonus, Peterson said, for a loyal workforce with a median age of 34. “Every one of them is going to be a shareholder,” he said.
The move is meant to broaden iSun’s share of the solar market adding in small-scale and residential focus of SunCommon to its larger-scale commercial, industrial and utility-scale business including solar electric vehicle charging.
“This is a milestone moment for iSun,” said Jeffrey Peck, iSun chairman and chief executive officer in a statement. “Not only does this acquisition deliver on our promise to investors to execute our residential strategy, but also it honors our 50-year legacy of helping accelerate the widespread adoption of life-enhancing technological innovations.”
The acquisition will establish SunCommon as a subsidiary, Peterson explained, continuing to do business under the SunCommon name with its workforce intact including leadership. Its facilities and territory will remain as well with much potential to expand. With approximately 150 employees, iSun presently operates in 10 states including New England, New York and the Carolinas.
“As a market solution to the climate crisis, scale matters,” said SunCommon co-president and co-founder James Moore. “Joining iSun allows SunCommon to accelerate our growth plans and delight our customers with clean energy solutions that improve their lives and protect our planet.”
Peterson noted that SunCommon will continue operating as a Public Benefit Corporation and a certified B Corp with an eye toward helping its new parent earn its B Corp certification as well. “We intend to create the nation’s largest values-led clean energy business,” Peterson said.
Going forward, Peck will serve as the CEO of the combined organizations; Peterson and Moore will serve as co-Presidents of SunCommon, the companies said.
The combined organization generated net revenues of approximately $51.4 and $70 million in calendar years 2020 and 2019, respectively. In 2020, SunCommon’s revenues were approximately $33.1 million, according to the joint announcement.
Founded in 1972, iSun previously was known as Peck Company Holdings, Inc., until it changed its name in January following its merger with iSun. Peck historically specialized in the installation of clean rooms, fiber optic cables, flight simulators, and more recently has moved into solar with now more than 400 megawatts of residential as well as commercial and industrial solar system installations in its portfolio. A growing segment of its business is in battery-backed solar electric vehicle charging systems coming from the iSun merger.
In 2014, Peck and SunCommon began working together on community solar projects in Vermont, Peterson said. That gave them ample opportunity to become familiar with each other's operations, values, and goals. More than two dozen projects later, the compatibility was clear. "We know these folks and they know us," he said.