Pioneering the next generation of solar technology presents a unique, profound challenge: securing partnerships with customers for a product that has yet to hit the market. Customer buy-in is vital—it drives the flow of resources necessary to scale new manufacturing and bring ambitious plans to fruition. But how do you find those customers and convince them that partnering with your company is a winning strategy?
For Geoff Dunican, our VP of Commercial Strategy, the task comes down to building trust and creating a long-term pathway to de-risk the journey for early partners.
Geoff brings to the role a deep understanding of solar markets alongside the ins and outs of business development. He started his career in finance and investing before making the jump to solar with PowerFlex (then EnterSolar, and now part of EDF). Over seven years, Geoff developed large commercial and industrial solar projects for PowerFlex’s corporate customers before leading commercial strategy and operations. From there, he got his first taste for deep tech startups and dove into the product side of the solar business with Ubiquitous Energy, a transparent solar technology company commercializing solar windows for commercial construction.
Since joining Swift Solar, Geoff has guided the company’s efforts to deepen engagement with critical strategic partners, including Eni Plenitude and the Department of Defense, while building a customer base among the country's top utility-scale and community solar developers, space customers, and more.
He brings a wealth of knowledge to our customers, with a blend of project development experience and product commercialization know-how. And in just under a year, he’s made an impressive impact on Swift. Hear from Geoff directly below.
Q: You’ve spent over a decade in the clean energy sector, much of it focused on solar. How has the market changed in that time?
It’s gone from niche to absolutely dominant.
When I first started in 2015, I had to spend a lot of time educating potential customers on the very basics of solar, and convincing them that it offered real advantages. Now, everyone is familiar with solar, and we’re more likely to get sophisticated questions about cost, reliability, supply chain, and, increasingly, performance differentiation.
The shift is even more obvious when you look through a finance lens at, say, capital flows. We’re way past the days when solar was in the “alternative” category. It’s a core infrastructure investment.
Q: What does a day in the life of Swift Solar’s VP of Commercial Strategy and Partnerships look like?
On any given day, I might be talking to a potential utility-scale customer, folks in the space industry, hyperscalers, other solar manufacturers, or strategic partners like the Department of Defense.
Because those conversations are so wide-ranging, my job depends on having a complete understanding of what Swift can do as a solar technology provider and manufacturer. It also requires me to think like an integrator. I need to explain a credible view of where we fit in the market today, where we’ll be in the future, how we are designed into energy systems, and what commercial pathways we can take to get there.
Q: In your outreach to potential customers, you’re selling them on a product that hasn’t yet hit the market. How do you make a case—not just for perovskite tandems, but for Swift Solar?
At this stage, I see our task as bigger than selling a product. We’re asking customers to make a commitment to a long-term partnership, and that means asking them to take on some level of risk. If they partner with us at an enterprise level, they’re depending on us to deliver for their technology needs and specified project timelines. We have to hold ourselves accountable to that.
Trust is essential to these relationships, and that means honesty must be at the core of our approach. We have to be transparent about our roadmap and how we plan to derisk as much of the journey as possible. And we have to continuously create value for them along the way.
That’s why the Meyer Burger acquisition was a critical move. It gives us the ability to start making heterojunction solar cells, which we can offer our early customers very quickly to address near-term demand, while generating revenues to support the long-term commercialization of tandems, which our customers will directly benefit from.
Q: This August will mark your first full year with Swift Solar. What are you most proud of from your time at Swift so far, and what are the goals you’ve set for yourself and your team in year two and beyond?
The Meyer Burger acquisition was a defining moment for all of us. From a commercial perspective, we now have a bigger-picture narrative to share with customers as a technology partner—putting the right building blocks in place and in the right sequence to execute on our vision for bringing perovskite tandems to market.
Looking ahead, I want us to convert those customer conversations into long-term customer partnerships—starting with heterojunction solar modules and then transitioning to tandems. Those anchor partnerships will be the unlock for a proliferation of heterojunction and tandem production in the US, and those specific partners will benefit the most.
Q: Are you finding the AI boom shaping the perspectives of potential customers and partners?
It’s in the background of every conversation. Everyone is chasing more power, because everyone we’re talking to is looking at the same demand curve and the same need to meet it in the most economical way possible. But, believe it or not, it’s not often an explicit part of those conversations—it’s implicit.
The pervasive constraint on power creates urgent demand for the cell capacity we are building. Our customers are thinking strategically: they are engaging early to secure future domestic heterojunction supply for their project pipelines, as well as higher-power tandem supply to enhance competitiveness. This accelerates our internal development, affirming that our commercial solutions, both heterojunction and tandem modules, will be an extremely attractive option to meet growing energy build-out.
Q: Given that Swift Solar is pioneering a breakthrough technology, what unique mindset or skill is essential for the commercial side of a deep-tech company?
You have to be comfortable with nuance and complexity. In deep tech, the commercial team must be experts not just in finance, sales, and market strategy, but also in the technology and product roadmaps. Our job is to translate our technological progress and manufacturing plan into a clear, trustworthy, risk-mitigated strategy for our customers. The most successful people in this field can integrate technical understanding with immediate commercial execution, all while being able to simplify the explanation.
Q: What makes you most excited about your work at Swift Solar?
We have a dynamic team blending technical innovation with commercial strategy to pioneer a new technology. It’s a real challenge, and it’s pressure-filled, but we think our success will completely reshape the industry. What could be more exciting than that?
