The founder
Vincent founded Mycrogrid® in 2014 and has designed residential energy systems in the Coachella Valley since 2006. He believes a home should produce, store, and control its own power and use the utility only as backup.
Founder, Mycrogrid®
Palm Desert, California.
Author of Cut the Cord. Designing residential energy systems since 2006.
Abroad
Vincent lived in Moscow and worked across the former Soviet Union, running a company in real estate development, importing, and television and film production.
After communism, Russia's electricity still came from one centralized system, and it was inefficient and wasteful. Vincent says his dislike of centralized power started there.
In Riga, Latvia, he saw an apartment building running on rooftop solar panels and solar thermal collectors. It was the first practical solar installation he had seen, and it shaped the work he did later.
He came back to the United States in 1999 and earned his California real estate broker's license. For the next several years he worked with retail developers on sustainable building practices.
“Energy doesn't have to travel hundreds of miles to power your home. The future of energy begins where it's consumed.”
Education
He studied at Cal Poly as an undergraduate. After his years abroad, he went back to school for an MBA at UC Riverside's Palm Desert campus.
Vincent grew up in Oceanside, New York, and moved to Southern California in high school. His father had emigrated from Italy because of political and economic pressure, and Vincent credits him with his work ethic. He paid his way through Cal Poly working as a certified auto mechanic.
UCR opened its Palm Desert campus in 2005 with two graduate programs, and the MBA was one of them. Vincent was in the first class. His master's thesis was a plan for a residential solar company that put energy efficiency first, then a custom solar system, and pre-wired homes for battery storage at a time when almost no one was installing it.
“It was the blueprint for the entire company. It was such an advantage to put everything down on paper and make it work there before I took it into the real world.”
Career
Homes in the valley are served by two utilities with different rules, and summer heat drives electricity use up. The roofs get more sun and heat than almost anywhere else in the country. This valley is the only market where he has designed energy systems.
The work grew out of his MBA thesis. He chose the Coachella Valley for its sun and because he already had ties to the community.
Mycrogrid® partnered with energy-management companies on smart battery systems at a time when few homes had battery storage.
The book argues that solar is the first step, battery storage is the second, and a locally controlled home microgrid is the goal.
He works out of the Mycrogrid® office on Cook Street in Palm Desert and still meets with homeowners himself.
Family history
According to Vincent, his ancestor Alessandro Battaglia filed a patent in 1886 for a solar collector. It used flat and near-flat reflectors to concentrate sunlight and a boiler to store the heat until it was needed.
“The utility isn't disappearing. It's changing jobs. Its new job is backup.”
The book
The book is now in its second edition. It explains why solar panels alone don't make a home energy independent and why battery storage and local control matter. The book page has the chapter list, a reading sample, and places to buy it.
Go to the book pageVisit
The office is on Cook Street in Palm Desert. If Vincent is in, he'll give you a copy of Cut the Cord and talk with you about home energy, whether or not you become a customer.
