Dan Shugar

Dan Shugar (born 1964) is an American business executive and renewable energy pioneer. He is co-founder and CEO of Nextracker (Nasdaq: NXT), a Freemont, California-based manufacturer of intelligent solar trackers and software. After pioneering and commercializing the first solar tracker in the mid-1990s, Dan Shugar devoted his career to advancing solar technologies for utility-scale solar power plants and distributed generation solar projects worldwide.
==Early Life & Education==
Shugar grew up in New Jersey. He went to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering. He later received an MBA from Golden Gate University.
==Career==
Shugar began his career in solar in the late 1980s at Pacific Gas and Electric Company. In 1993, he became vice president of Sales and Operations at APS and NWP Corporations (later BP Solar), an early innovator in solar tracking technology. In 1996, Shugar joined Tom Dinwoodie, who had just invented a lightweight solar roof system, as the first president of PowerLight Corporation (now SunPower Corporation Systems). At the time, the eight-person company operated from a one-car garage in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Upon discovering that residential and commercial energy needs exceeded the capacity of rooftop solar installations, Shugar and Dinwoodie drew on existing Intellectual Property to commercialize single-axis solar trackers and received certification for their use in the U.S. and Europe. Other innovations followed, including a "solar inverter in a container" for use at solar power plants, an integrated residential solar roof systems and carport solutions.
By 2006, the company had built more than 500 large-scale solar installations in the U.S. and Europe. In 2007, SunPower Systems Corp. purchased PowerLight for $332 million. Shugar was later named president of SunPower Systems Corp. Under Shugar's leadership, PowerLight and SunPower grew from less than $1 million to $830 million in revenues, and Shugar was responsible for the completion of more than 500 commercial, industrial and utility solar projects worldwide.
In March 2009, Shugar took a sabbatical from SunPower Systems to work with the Sierra Club to help close over 100 coal plants comprising 60 gigawatts of baseload coal. Shugar also spent time during his sabbatical evaluating new solar technologies and employment opportunities. In 2010, he became CEO of Solaria, a solar panel startup.
In 2013, while still at Solaria, Shugar co-founded Nextracker, Inc.https://www.nextracker.com/ to develop a new generation of solar-tracking systems for utility-scale solar power plant use. In 2014, Nextracker was spun off from Solaria, and Shugar was named CEO. Under Shugar's leadership, Nextracker pioneered solar tracking system innovations that increase energy yields, reduce costs, and expand their application. He also guided the company to its debut on the Nasdaq Global Select Market in 2023. As of March 31, 2024, the company had shipped solar tracking systems for more than 100 gigawatts (GW) of capacity to 40 countries across six continents.
==Board service==
Shugar sits on the board of directors of:
* The American Clean Power Association
* The Solar Energy Industry Association
==Awards & Recognition==
Platts Global Energy Awards – In 2023, CEO Dan Shugar received the Chief Trailblazer award for energy industry leadership and innovation.
Clean Energy for Biden Inaugural Ball -- In January 2021, Shugar performed a Jimi Hendrix-style rendition of the Star-Spangled Banner at the Clean Energy for Biden Inaugural Ball in Washington, D.C.
Category:1964 births
Category:American business executives
Category:American people
Category:Renewable energy