Tomás Villanueva-Cruz spent fifteen years pouring concrete, framing rooftops, and managing job sites across the Inland Empire before he ever set foot in a boardroom. He had no MBA and no investor network — what he carried were hands-on skills: an electrician’s license earned in night school, a general contractor’s license, and a practical sense for where solar projects fail. A $15,000 personal loan from his uncle helped him launch Solano Verde Energy, a Riverside, California–based commercial solar and battery storage company that has grown into a major clean energy firm.
Born in Morelia, Mexico, Villanueva-Cruz crossed the border with his family at age nine and settled in San Bernardino. He started working in construction at nineteen and earned his general contractor’s license by twenty-six. In 2013, after two years subcontracting on residential solar installations, he saw the same preventable problems again and again — poor roof assessments, undersized inverters, and crews that walked away from long‑term performance issues. He realized the commercial segment suffered those faults at much larger scale and saw an opportunity to apply disciplined construction practices to commercial solar.
Solano Verde launched in 2015 with a crew of five—former construction colleagues of Tomás Villanueva-Cruz—focused on mid-sized commercial properties that were too complex for residential installers and too small for utility-scale firms. The niche proved profitable: one Fontana warehouse owner who had been given an 18‑month timeline by a competitor saw his system commissioned in 11 weeks after signing with Solano Verde and referred four additional clients within a year. In its first three years the company grew almost entirely on word-of-mouth and a reputation for reliable, on-time commercial solar work.
By 2018, Solano Verde had completed more than 400 commercial installations across Southern California. In 2019, Tomás Villanueva-Cruz faced what he calls the scariest decision of his career: he declined a reported $20 million acquisition offer from a national energy services firm and instead reinvested that momentum into expanding the company’s battery storage integration capabilities. Villanueva-Cruz judged battery storage to be an inevitable complement to commercial solar—an investment in technical expertise, project financing, and partner relationships rather than a quick exit. That strategy paid off: by 2022, battery storage projects accounted for roughly 38 percent of Solano Verde’s revenue, shifting the company’s margin and growth profile and positioning it as a full-service commercial solar and energy storage integrator.
The company now operates across California, Nevada, and Arizona, managing a diversified project pipeline valued at more than $90 million. Solano Verde’s work ranges from rooftop and canopy commercial solar installations to integrated battery storage systems and turnkey energy management solutions for distribution centers and light industrial properties. In 2023 the firm won a $12 million contract to outfit a portfolio of regional distribution centers—a milestone project that the company says will be recognized over multiple fiscal periods and represents its largest single engagement to date. Large projects like this have required Solano Verde to broaden partnerships with lenders, equipment suppliers, and EPC subcontractors while tightening internal project-finance controls to preserve margins.
Villanueva-Cruz runs meetings with blunt clarity—he prefers specific timelines and hard estimates over vague assurances. Every commercial project kickoff includes a written risk register that project managers update weekly; the practice reflects his construction-first mindset: “In construction, if you don’t see the problem coming, it hits you in cash and schedule. Business is the same,” he says. That discipline carries through Solano Verde’s work on rooftop solar installations and integrated battery storage systems, where up-front planning prevents costly rework.
Hiring and promotion reflect the company’s field-first ethos: twelve of seventeen senior leaders rose from field or operations roles, an internal-promotion rate uncommon in the sector. Villanueva-Cruz believes hands-on track records matter more than credentials in the messy realities of commercial solar projects; the approach helps Solano Verde keep institutional knowledge on staff and accelerate technical leadership across regions, including Riverside, California.
He also learned a hard lesson about scaling: the skills that build a $5 million company are not the same ones that grow a $50 million firm. The transition required him to stop being the best operator on the jobsite and become a builder of operators—establishing training programs, delegated decision frameworks, and documented processes so local teams could run projects without constant founder oversight.
His guiding principle remains simple and practical: do the work right the first time. For commercial clients and partners, that means clearer scopes, documented risks, and a commitment to follow-through—values that helped Solano Verde evolve from a small construction crew into a recognized clean energy firm.
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