Before his abrupt death a year ago, the pop musician Prince made an investment in green energy that’s now helping solar start-ups weather an assault from President Donald Trump.
It started with a conversation in 2011 between Prince and his friend Van Jones, a CNN commentator and California human rights agitator and onetime green-jobs adviser to President Barack Obama.
“He asked, ‘If I have a quarter-million dollars, what can I do with it?’” Jones recalled in an interview. “My wife said he should put solar panels all over Oakland.”
That led to the creation of Powerhouse, a rare for-profit incubator dedicated to putting clean-tech entrepreneurs together with investors. The company has helped 43 start-ups get on their feet in an era when venture capital funding for renewables has plunged and Trump is working to slash funds for early-stage entities from the U.S. Department of Energy.
It’s an example of how fledgling solar companies are relying on angel investors, foundations and family offices for seed money. And it has helped make Oakland, across a bay from San Francisco, a hive for clean-tech finance with 13 companies and six industry organizations working near Powerhouse’s offices.
With a grant from Prince, Jones brought in Billy Parish, founder and chief executive officer of Solar Mosaic Inc., then a rookie crowdfunding loan provider working in Arizona. Parish moved Solar Mosaic to Oakland, where he met Emily Kirsch. She was a green jobs campaigner at the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, a non-profit that Jones co-founded. Kirsch worked with Solar Mosaic on its first four projects then had the idea to make money helping young companies.
“If my support could help one company, what if our network could help 10 or 50 companies?” said Kirsch, 31.
That’s where the story ended for Prince, who died in April 2016 at age 57. Jones said Prince wanted his involvement to remain anonymous.
Powerhouse found its initial home in the office of another emerging solar company, Sungevity Inc. Mosaic, an early Powerhouse company, was also based there at the time.
The incubator emerged as venture capital dried up following unprofitable investments in solar manufacturing and biofuel start-ups. VCs provided $4.3 billion for clean-energy last year, less than a tenth of the $50.2 billion peak in 2007, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance.