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A Revolution Around The Sun

A Revolution Around The Sun

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  • Phil Coupe ’86 Envisions a Brighter Future

Phil Coupe ’86

When I look back on my Gould experience, it’s with deep gratitude and appreciation for the education and tremendous community building I experienced there. The faculty were all unique human beings who brought a different positive component to a young mind like mine.
Phil Coupe and his colleagues at ReVision Energy are on a mission to save the planet. It’s a lofty goal that he finds somewhat intimidating, but spend some time with Phil, and you get the sense that he is the right person for the job.

His journey started in earnest when he first connected with his business partners Bill Behrens and Fortunat Mueller nearly 20 years ago. Their ambition at the time was to bring solar energy into the mainstream to address global warming and environmental degradation from society’s overreliance on fossil fuels.

“When we started, our mission was to transition northern New England from a fossil fuel-based economy to a sustainable, re- newable energy-based economy, and we laughed at ourselves because it felt ridiculous in scope."

"Here we are, 20 years later, and ReVision Energy will come close to having installed 200 megawatts of solar power (enough to power over 32,000 homes) throughout Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts. Combining the output of all the solar installed in our region over the past two decades is equivalent to the output of multiple gas-fired power plants. Although there’s still a long way to go, we can now actually see measurable progress on our mission.”

Since then, ReVision has retooled its mission to “Make Life Better by Building our Just and Equitable Electric Future.” That, too, is a tall order. Still, when you look at how they value “people over profit” and “community over competition,” you start to see how passionately they believe in creating a better world for present and future generations.

    • Phil Coupe stands in front of the ReVision Energy sign at their South Portland location. For Phil, installing solar arrays is only one piece of the puzzle. As a 100%-employee-owned company and a certified B Corporation, ReVision’s top commitment is to its people, making them an excellent employer in Northern New England.

A Vision for Change

Phil sees the big picture and believes his job is more than installing solar panels, electric vehicle chargers, batteries, and heat pumps. It’s about using business as a tool for positive change and creating a better life for customers, employees, and those struggling to make ends meet.

“We’re at the scale of eight billion people on Earth, and we should be doing a much better job taking care of those who need help as well as the other species that need to live on this planet,” explains Phil. “[At ReVision], we see winner-take-all capitalism as the root cause of many of the biggest problems on the planet. The worst issues confronting humankind are caused by the relentless concentration of wealth and power in the United States and throughout the globe.”

ReVision strives to be an antidote to these problems and a model of how businesses can be a force for good. They are doing this through B Corp certification, a global set of standards for ethical businesses to practice environmental and social responsibility. Phil explains how “the B Corp movement is harnessing the immense power of the business community to create positive change.”

“We’ve fully embraced B Corp certification, and we’re trying to help push it forward by hosting informational seminars and showing other businesses the benefits of certification. We have been named a ‘Best for the World Company’ twice. That means that across all of B Corp’s scoring metrics, ReVision is among the top 5% in the world.”

As part of the company’s commitment to continuous improvement and in alignment with B Corp standards, ReVision converted to 100% employee ownership in 2017, giving all employees a stake in the company.

“100% employee ownership is meant to be a powerful signal that we are serious about changing this problem of gross wealth inequity and disparity,” says Phil. “We believe that sharing the business’s success more equitably with all the people helping to create that success is how we build a more just and equitable society.”

In addition, every co-owner at ReVision gets paid time off to volunteer and a robust array of benefits. It’s well known that people are most engaged and committed to their work when employers take good care of them. This has helped ReVision Energy earn a reputation for quality and service.

Phil Coupe ’86

We adhere to a standard of technical excellence in the work that we’re doing,” says Phil. “All of these new clean technologies need to be as robust or better than the fossil fuel equivalent that we’ve become accustomed to for a transition to succeed over time. We maintain the highest levels of quality work, technical competence, and cutting-edge engineering so that when we install these systems, they work as people expect them to.

A Solar Revolution & the Power of the Sun

In the early days of ReVision, the cost of solar technology was astronomical. Only the wealthy and the most committed early adopters could afford to install an array. Luckily for Phil and his partners, Maine had enough individuals and businesses to help get ReVision off the ground. Over ReVision’s 20-year history, that accessibility has changed because solar manufacturing has scaled globally, similar to the auto industry.

“If you can afford to finance an automobile, which most people can do, you can afford to finance a solar array for your home. The difference is, when you put that solar array on your roof, the first day you turn it on, it begins cranking out its own revenue stream in the form of solar-generated kilowatt hours. These valuable units of electricity power our lives, and the array can pay for itself within eight to ten years.”

Thanks to the rapid progression of clean technology, people can take multiple actions right now to lower their carbon footprint. The first step, according to Phil, is maximizing the efficiency of your existing home.

“Often, it’s better environmentally and easier on the pocketbook if you insulate before thinking about solar. If we show up at a home and it’s obvious that they need to do a lot of air sealing and insulation, we will share that information and potentially delay a solar project. If we want to hasten this energy transition, we must do it right, and energy efficiency is always the lowest-hanging fruit. People can trust us to give them that honest feedback.”

Investing in renewable energy can be overwhelming, and Phil doesn’t blame the consumer for hesitating or not knowing where to start. He sees himself as an educator and source of reliable information and strongly believes solar energy is the future.

Phil is passionate about the environment but gets particularly excited when talking about the sun’s potential.

“It’s crazy to know that in roughly one hour, the sun is putting enough energy on the surface of the Earth to power all human energy demand for an entire year,” says Phil. “It’s a staggering amount of energy, and this is essentially why ReVision is in the solar business rather than wind or hydro.”

If you need further convincing on the viability of solar, Phil has done his homework.

He points out something that many in New England don’t realize. Maine is at the same latitude as Monaco on the French Riviera in
the South of France. New England has a colder climate than the popular vacation destination due to Gulf Stream winds drawing down colder air from the north, but fortunately, solar arrays are more efficient at colder temps. This explains why a solar array in the northeast produces roughly as much electricity annually as one in Houston, Texas. New England’s potential gets more  impressive when you look at the example of Germany, a global leader in solar production that is located at a latitude significantly further north than Maine. Arrays in New England get roughly 33 percent more sunlight than those in Germany, a country that has made an enormous commitment to renewable energy and is decades ahead of the United States in solar infrastructure. This means Northern New England can gradually reduce its over reliance on fossil fuels by harnessing its abundant wind and solar resources.

Phil Coupe ’86

“We don’t need to destroy the Earth with hydrofracking and methane gas releases when we can harness abundant renewable resources right off our rooftops,” Phil implores. “Who doesn’t love the idea of their own energy independence while making energy that’s completely zero emission? It’s friendly to you, your family, your neighbors, and other creatures who depend on a clean environment for survival, and it will save you money compared to the enormous costs of paying for fossil fuels.”

Phil Answers “Why Solar?”

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A Brighter Future

Phil constantly thinks about the future but remains connected to his past. He thinks about his time at Gould, during the tenure of former Head of School Bill Clough, and how it helped to guide him along the path he is on today.

“When I look back on my Gould experience, it’s with deep gratitude and appreciation for the education and tremendous community building experienced there. The faculty were all unique human beings who brought a different positive component to a young mind like mine. My life at Gould was deeply enriched by my experiences, both in the classroom and on the athletic fields, but also winter camping [on Junior Four Point] or ski jumping, things I would never have imagined doing. Gould opened my eyes to the world in a new way and gave me the tools that helped me find the path to what has become ReVision Energy.”

With one foot firmly planted in his past and 20 years of experience behind him, Phil and ReVision Energy are poised to move swiftly into a brighter, more equitable, and sustainable future. They are optimistic as they watch the industry gain momentum and feel we’re on a historic precipice.

There are 87 countries worldwide that have passed the five percent tipping point of initiating clean energy into widespread adoption. 2022 was the first year that green energy investments matched our global investments in fossil fuels. There are electric buses in Portland, Maine, and more are on their way for schools. Electric excavators, snowmobiles, and boats like the one he pilots around Casco Bay. Shipping companies like FedEx, UPS, and Amazon are all moving towards electric technology. ReVision recently covered the South Portland landfill with solar panels, and they’ve started to install agricultural voltaics into livestock grazing and food crop production spaces.

Amazingly, even the petroleum industry is investing in renewable
energy. An industry that once dreamed of putting solar suppliers out of business has become an unlikely collaborator.

“We sat down with Arthur Irving, the chairman of Irving Oil, and his daughter Sarah. They looked us in the eye and said, ‘We know if we don’t evolve, our business will die. We’d like to work together.’ Since that meeting, we’ve begun installing solar on some of their 900 fueling stations and built electric vehicle charging stations. Partnering with a major regional petroleum company is just one of the tectonic shifts we’re seeing all around us.”

The movement is in full swing, and the energy playing field is rapidly shifting toward renewables combined with clean technology like EVs, heat pumps, and battery storage.

    • Phil on his Flux Marine electric outboard motor, the first of it's kind in Casco Bay, which he proudly shows off in an effort to get others on board.

Despite the progress to date on clean energy, Phil and his fellow ‘ReVisionistas’ are committed to addressing other societal problems.

One of the biggest challenges is re-knitting the fabric of a divided country where clean energy has become politicized. “Things have been torn apart through divisive politics and hate. Now is a moment when we need to pull everyone together. We’ve reached this point where every American needs to have this mindset of community and love for one another.” Again he leans on lessons learned at Gould as a way forward and offers advice to current Gould students as they step into an un-known future.

“Open your hearts and minds to the better world that we know is possible through community building and positive relation- ship building. That requires intent. It will not happen on its own. The community service and volunteering lessons that I learned at Gould need to be put on steroids today so that we all lift up each other,” relays Phil. “If everyone with something to give in this world were to offer it to somebody else in need, we would all be in a much better place than we are today. My vision for the future is for a more cohesive humanity that recognizes we have the re- sources for everyone to meet their basic needs for food, clothing, and shelter. None of this will happen unless we all work hard for the outcomes we want to achieve.”

Phil Coupe ’86

Open your hearts and minds to the better world that we know is possible through community building and positive relation- ship building. That requires intent. It will not happen on its own. The community service and volunteering lessons that I learned at Gould need to be put on steroids today so that we all lift up each other,” relays Phil. “If everyone with something to give in this world were to offer it to somebody else in need, we would all be in a much better place than we are today. My vision for the future is for a more cohesive humanity that recognizes we have the re- sources for everyone to meet their basic needs for food, clothing, and shelter. None of this will happen unless we all work hard for the outcomes we want to achieve.
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