Earthlight Technologies has been a longtime member of the Connecticut Sustainable Business Council, and CEO Sam Schneider serves on our board of directors. The company designs and installs solar, energy storage, and energy efficiency solutions for residential and commercial customers across the region, with a reputation built on craftsmanship, trust, and lasting relationships. You can learn more at their website.
We sat down with Danielle Fidel, who stepped into the newly created role of Chief Commercial Officer in October 2025, to talk about her path into renewables, what it means to grow a business intentionally, and why she believes the best time to go solar is right now.
Tell us a bit about your background.
Like many of us who have been in renewables for more than 15 years, I kind of stumbled into it. I got my MPH in Environmental Health back in the mid-2000s and landed my first job in solar shortly thereafter when an electrician engineer friend suggested I apply for a role at a solar company where he was working. I told him he was crazy, but I did it anyway. I remember going on a walking interview with the founder of this small, mostly residential solar business in Arizona and feeling an instant connection to the business, their mission, and renewables. They took a leap of faith in me, and that started my 17+ year career in renewables.
I spent a decade there and had the opportunity to wear basically every hat there was to wear, which gave me a fantastic foundation on which to build the rest of my career. I eventually became a co-owner when we transitioned to a worker cooperative, and I served as the Director of Commercial Solar overseeing and growing out the division, which focused on providing creative solar solutions to businesses and non-profits. During that time, I was also able to be actively involved in some interesting solar movements like the creation of the Amicus Solar Cooperative, through which I gained invaluable experience collaborating with developer/EPCs across the US.
Eventually, I was invited to join another solar company’s commercial team, where I was able to take what I learned and help other developer/EPCs grow their businesses. That is where I first met the Earthlight team. From there, I helped launch and grow a third-party ownership platform with the same main goal, to help developers grow their businesses.
Fast forward to August of 2025 when Sam Schneider reached out to me asking to have a conversation about what it might look like for me to join the Earthlight team. We discussed where Earthlight was in their journey, what their team needed support with most, and how I could best fit in to help move the ball as they navigated their company’s future. I joined the team in October 2025 and couldn’t be more excited to help this organization grow.
Your role as Chief Commercial Officer is a newly created position at Earthlight. What gap in the business did it fill, and what does that signal about where the company is headed?
Earthlight has built a strong foundation over the years, with a clear identity, strong leadership, and a reputation for doing good work and building lasting relationships. As the company continued to grow, there became a greater need for dedicated executive leadership focused on how we evaluate opportunities across all our business lines, where we direct our effort, and how we make sure our growth is both intentional and sustainable.
As Chief Commercial Officer, I oversee all revenue generating divisions, which means we now have a dedicated individual who is able to create synergies across the organization and help each division scale in both their own unique ways and within a broader ecosystem. That includes improving reporting and creating accountability standards that allow us to evaluate each business line’s performance, bolstering cross-pollination across business lines, and helping the leadership team identify where our time, energy, and resources can have the greatest impact.
In any growing company, there is always pressure to do more, pursue more, and move faster, and if that isn’t managed effectively the growth isn’t sustainable and the organization can suffer. What this role allows us to do is be more thoughtful about where we invest our effort so that we are growing in the right areas and making decisions that support the business over the long term.
In terms of where the company is headed, I think the creation of this role signals that Earthlight is focused on growing more intentionally. It shows a commitment to developing the business in a thoughtful way focused on long-term success, not short-term gain. Sustainable growth is about building strategic relationships, focusing on the right opportunities, diversifying in the right ways, and creating something that is strong enough to last. You can expect to continue to see Earthlight leading the charge in our core business lines while diversifying into complementary business lines that allow us to foster our mission of strengthening the places people live and work, all while still upholding our company values.
You came in expecting to spend your first months learning the ropes and instead found yourself in the middle of a Q4 sprint to close contracts. What did that experience teach you about selling sustainability solutions in a market so tied to tax credits and policy deadlines?
Ha! There’s nothing like stepping into a new role at a new company during one of the most fast and furious quarters our industry has ever seen. Sure, it would have been great to come in and have time to learn the ropes and build out a robust plan for 2026 and beyond, but in many ways it was the perfect time to step in, roll my sleeves up, and get to work.
The influence of policy and tax incentive changes on our industry is nothing new, so I was used to the sprint and ready to help support in any way the business needed to get through Q4. For me, that meant immediately jumping in to help make sure C+I customers were getting contracts executed and deposits paid so we could safe-harbor equipment for them, while also having the strategic conversations we needed to have as a leadership team to manage through the changes.
It also allowed me to see first-hand that I had joined a team that was going to be able to adapt to the changing landscape ahead of us. The Earthlight team does not hesitate when the work gets hard. There is a willingness here to stay focused, work through the pressure, and meet the moment directly. That matters in this space, because policy deadlines can create urgency, but they also create uncertainty. Customers need clarity, leadership teams need discipline, and companies need to know how to respond without losing their footing.
You need a leadership team that can adapt quickly, think clearly under pressure, move with urgency without becoming overly reactive, and stay open to new opportunities as the market shifts, which is easier said than done for many organizations. If deadlines are driving urgency in the market, businesses need to be built to respond to that urgency.
The larger takeaway is that tax credits and deadlines may influence timing, but they do not define the long-term direction of the industry. Solar and sustainability remain a lasting part of the future. The companies that will be strongest over time are the ones that know how to navigate short-term change without losing sight of that bigger picture.
Earthlight has deliberately diversified across solar, energy efficiency, residential, and commercial. How does that intentional mix protect the business, and what does it take operationally to pull it off?
Diversification is key to being able to weather the bumps in the road that inevitably pop up, especially when you play in an industry that is heavily policy driven. Having a mix of product offerings allows us to serve our customers in a more holistic way, and it also creates a more resilient business structure. When one business line is down, a couple of others might be way up, and it all balances out. Our success depends on this multi-layered approach.
Operationally, it is of course more demanding to manage multiple business lines, but we have a fantastic execution team that is laser focused on building internal expertise across all project types. That is far easier to do when you are committed to having an in-house team of installers, apprentices, and electricians. It also gives them the ability to diversify their skill sets and be more versatile in their trade. We have people who specialize at a high level in each division, and that expertise matters, but cross-training gives us flexibility as well. Having both is the key to success.
Customer requests are serving as a motivator for companies to implement sustainability. Are there other motivators? What do shifts in buyer motivation mean for how you approach a sales conversation?
Customer requests are certainly one motivator. We see that a lot in manufacturing, where they get pressure upstream to become more sustainable for fear of losing supplier contracts. We also have seen more and more companies thinking about how they stand out in a sea of competitors, and how sustainability can help amplify their brand. Ultimately though, I think for many buyers their main motivators are decreasing operating costs, building alternative income streams, and in some cases creating resiliency for their business. For others, it is also about environmental stewardship and making sure their operations reflect the values they want to stand behind.
What this means is that our job as an organization is to understand first and foremost what a customer’s goals are for their site and then come up with the right solutions from there. Different motivations often lead to different solutions. For one company, energy efficiency measures paired with behind-the-meter solar might be the right solution. For another, energy storage will be necessary to create the resiliency they need. And for some, an operating lease that generates revenue from their otherwise unused roof is the right fit. If you do not understand what is actually driving the decision, it is very difficult to guide that conversation well.
That is why our approach is always to listen first and educate second. We want to understand the customer’s needs, priorities, and goals before we start offering solutions. From there, our job is to help them understand what is possible and what makes the most sense for their situation.
What’s the most common misconception that commercial or industrial customers have when they are considering renewables or battery storage, and how does Earthlight address these concerns?
Oh man, misconceptions. I have probably heard them all, from panels leaching chemicals if broken by hail (not true, by the way) to solar being a hoax (also not true). But in all seriousness, some of the misconceptions I think businesses have are more around the cost of installation. They assume that they need to have a massive cash outlay to invest in solar or storage, and that is just no longer true. We have so many different financing mechanisms at our fingertips that cash on hand should never be a barrier to entry. And the reality is that the cost of electricity in Connecticut is so high that not doing something will be far more expensive over time than exploring solar, even with financing. Solar and storage can help businesses hedge against volatility in the energy market and help them control operating expenses.
Storage is also newer to the commercial market, so a lot of businesses don’t understand that batteries aren’t just for back-up power. They can actually help reduce electric expenses by reducing demand charges and generate revenue by interacting with the grid through demand response programs. Any business with space for a battery should be considering storage on their site.
The last misconception I will mention is about waiting for some “newer, better technology.” I have been in the solar space for over 17 years, and while there have been some advances, those are minimal at best and have never outweighed the cost of doing nothing. There is a saying in the industry that the best time to go solar was yesterday, and the second-best time is now. The sooner you deploy solar on your business or home, the sooner you start saving. Waiting for some new revolutionary technology before making the move is a futile effort. The time is now.
What’s working well for Earthlight in terms of sales and marketing? You mentioned partnerships as a core part of building relationships. Are there other things the company is doing to maintain a healthy pipeline?
Partnerships are and have always been a core part of building a healthy business at Earthlight, and that becomes increasingly obvious as time goes on. But I think the other thing that really keeps the pipeline healthy is our focus on quality, trust, and doing the right thing. Word of mouth is by far our most valuable lead generator. Earthlight has built a reputation of being the best both in craftsmanship and in customer experience, and that has created a self-generating sales engine.
Over the last few years, there has also been a real effort to strengthen the Earthlight brand publicly, not by changing who Earthlight is, but by doing a better job of expressing it. That has come through our commercials, our social presence, our sponsorships, and the way we show up in the community. We started as a local business, and people close to us knew who we were. What marketing has done very well is help broadcast that more clearly and more consistently, both within our local markets and beyond them.
We have also been very intentional about putting leadership out front. Sam, our CEO, is highly visible in our marketing and the broader local business community, and that gives people a real person to connect with. It puts a face behind the company, and it helps communicate something that is unique and important about Earthlight: that we are a relationship-driven, family-founded company that can still support very large and sophisticated projects.
The other piece is the relationship between sales and marketing. Those teams work very closely together, and that shows. Marketing supports sales, but marketing also listens closely to what the sales team is hearing in the field. That feedback helps us sharpen the message, stay aligned, and keep our brand voice consistent. So when I think about what is working, it is not just one channel or one campaign. It is the combination of a stronger public brand, high-quality creative work, referrals and trust, and a very close connection between sales and marketing that helps keep the pipeline moving.
Anything else you’d like to add?
We appreciate being able to participate with local industry groups like CTSBC. There are a lot of great organizations out there doing important work in the sustainability space, and every one of them plays a role in furthering this important work. Thank you.