With more than 34 years of entrepreneurial success, Kerry Adler has built a career as a true visionary and trailblazer in the renewable energy industry. With one in five people still lacking access to electricity, SkyPower – one of the largest and most successful commercial companies delivering utility-scale solar energy projects in the world – supports the SDGs with an approach that makes the goals integral to its core business. In short, his business success is contingent on meeting the global goals. Now operating in 36 countries, Kerry spearheads a business which succeeds by working hand-in-hand with diverse communities to meet their increasing energy needs with clean, sustainable solar solutions.
Kerry is a passionate advocate for climate change, particularly clean energy. Kerry founded SkyPower Global in 2003 in Ontario, Canada, making him one of the first entrepreneurs in the region to advocate for a viable renewable energy industry. Thanks to Kerry’s tireless campaigning in 2006, which brought together experts, investors and civil society, he helped to ensure that clean energy and climate action were legislative priorities for Ontario, with the introduction of the Renewable Energy Standard Offer Programme. This programme gave small businesses, farmers and communities an equal chance to access renewable energy, neatly demonstrating the commercial gains for small and large businesses in the transition to renewable energy. It also marked the first time that a North American jurisdiction implemented such a progressive plan.
In 2011, Kerry turned his focus to increasing public education about the benefits of clean energy, with a campaign called ShineONtario. The primary objective was to see the end of Ontario’s coal industry; this was met in 2014 when the province closed its last coal plant.
SkyPower shifted its focus from Canada to international emerging markets to help serve the 1.3 billion people who still lack access to energy. Kerry says: “I led this shift because when we do good, we do well.”
Today, SkyPower is a signatory of the UN Global Compact, a champion of the Caring for Climate initiative, a partner of the Climate Bonds Initiative, and was an official partner of COP21. The SDGs are core to business operations and part of SkyPower’s corporate DNA.
Kerry recently outlined a commitment to donate 3.5 million home solar kits in Bangladesh and Kenya, to families who cannot afford access to clean energy. Kerry explained that by helping eliminate energy poverty with accessible renewable solutions, the market becomes primed towards renewables as the first choice when it comes to investment decisions about energy use. With this in mind, Kerry is actively behind the US $100 trillion bond market available for climate change solutions.
