What if the smallest line item in your solar project budget could unlock millions in financing?

Solar projects don’t get financed on hope—they get financed on data.

Meet Ann Will, founder of GroundWork Renewables, the company solving one of utility-scale solar’s biggest pain points: uncertainty. GroundWork has quietly enabled over 1,000 met campaigns and helped developers secure billions in funding with high-accuracy irradiance and resource assessment data.

In this episode, you’ll discover how Ann turned a mid-life career pivot into a multimillion-dollar clean energy business that developers and financiers now rely on to de-risk their projects.

Ann’s story blends grit, intuition, and a deep understanding of both Wall Street and renewable energy. From pioneering irradiance measurement campaigns to scaling nationwide data platforms and working with leading developers like Recurrent Energy and Lightsource bp, Ann has helped the industry embrace data as a competitive advantage.

Expect to learn:

🔹 The 0.3% of CapEx that can drive 10X ROI and millions in pro forma value

🔹 What Ann Will learned raising capital after years of bootstrapping

🔹 How GroundWork grew from a service provider into a full-stack data platform

🔹 Why high-accuracy data is the key to unlocking solar project financing

🔹 The business value of no-gap irradiance data (hint: it’s in the millions)

🔹 How GroundWork de-risks utility-scale solar projects years before steel goes in the ground

Ann also unpacks how strategic capital from Lime Rock New Energy is helping her take GroundWork to the next level—and what it means for the future of clean energy infrastructure.

Check out OpenSolar OS 3.0 at: https://suncast.media/opensolar

If you want to connect with today's guest, you’ll find links to their contact info in the show notes on the blog at https://suncast.media/episodes/.

Our Platinum Presenting Sponsor for SunCast is CPS America!

You can learn more about all the sponsors who help make this show free for you at www.suncast.media/sponsors.

Remember, you can always find resources, learn more about today’s guest and explore recommendations, book links, and more than 850 other founder stories and startup advice at www.suncast.media.

Subscribe to Valence, our weekly LinkedIn Newsletter, and learn the elements of compelling storytelling: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/valence-content-that-connects-7145928995363049472/

You can connect with me, Nico Johnson, on:

Twitter - https://www.twitter.com/nicomeo

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickalus