Backbone Energy Engineering was founded by a career renewable energy engineer whose path through the industry spans its most transformative decades — from early residential solar installations under the mentorship of Solar Energy International's founders in Colorado, to leading utility-scale battery storage deployments at the frontier of what the technology could do.
Before founding Backbone, our principal engineer spent over a decade at SolarCity and Tesla Energy, where he served as the company's first Staff-level project designer and helped establish Tesla's utility-scale battery self-development program. His design portfolio includes utility-scale Megapack deployments totaling hundreds of megawatt-hours across Texas and California, microgrid systems in Hawaii and the Samoan islands, critical infrastructure battery integrations at dozens of California school districts and public facilities, and the first microgrid system deployed at SpaceX's Boca Chica facility. His background spans the full project lifecycle — from preliminary land assessment and indicative design through construction management and permission to operate.
◆ Ecovoltaics Design Philosophy
That hands-on foundation across residential, commercial, and utility-scale solar and storage — including direct installation and construction management experience early in his career — means that Backbone's advisory work is grounded in the realities of how energy systems actually get built, not just how they look on paper.
A Colorado State University mechanical engineering graduate, he pursued his Professional Engineer licensure in Electrical Power Engineering immediately after leaving Tesla — channeling the bandwidth that corporate life never allowed into earning a credential that now anchors Backbone Energy Engineering, founded in Colorado in 2026, as an independently licensed professional engineering practice. He earned that credential while raising two young children, reflecting the same disciplined commitment he brings to every project.
Backbone Energy Engineering exists because rural communities, municipalities, and public agencies deserve the same quality of technical expertise that the largest private developers take for granted — and because the clean energy transition moves faster when the communities that need it most have the engineering support to make confident procurement decisions. We believe the rural communities of America will emerge as surprising leaders of the clean energy transition, and we want to be part of making that happen.
