Solar friends, if you’re as much of a Grateful Dead fan as I am, you might be familiar with Terrapin Crossroads, a music venue and restaurant in San Rafael, California, that’s owned and operated by one of the Dead’s founding members, Phil Lesh, and his family. As you probably know, nature and Mother Earth have always been a big part of the Dead’s culture and mission, and since music has always been a part of the Inovateus mission to “build a brilliant tomorrow,” it was appropriate that we celebrated Terrapin’s new 39.2 KW rooftop solar system on Mother’s Day with some live music.
The Terrapin Crossroads installation is unique in several ways. First, as you’ll see, it was a true solar industry collaboration. Phil and the entire Lesh family have always had a vision to be environmentally responsible business owners. They’ve previously renovated Beach Park, adjacent to Terrapin, turning it into a beautiful green space, but they wanted to do more to be an example of a sustainable business. And since we’re such big music fans, we wanted to help them.
We reached out to some of our supply partners and a local Marin County installer, SunFirst Solar, and not unlike the best musical jam sessions, it all harmoniously came together. Fronius provided the inverter, local distributor Rexel offered IronRidge racking, Gexpro hooked us up with 150 JA Solar panels, and the install was like a song. As you can see in the accompanying photos, the partnership resulted in a beautiful commercial rooftop installation.
[/fusion_text][fusion_separator style_type=”single solid” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” class=”” id=”” sep_color=”” top_margin=”10px” bottom_margin=”20px” border_size=”” icon=”fa-music” icon_circle=”” icon_circle_color=”” width=”” alignment=”center” /][fusion_images picture_size=”auto” hover_type=”none” autoplay=”yes” columns=”1″ column_spacing=”13″ scroll_items=”” show_nav=”yes” mouse_scroll=”no” border=”yes” lightbox=”yes” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” class=”” id=””][fusion_image image=”https://inovateus.comtestwp/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/TXR-DJI_0004-1200×675.jpg” image_id=”17878″ link=”” linktarget=”_self” alt=”Terrapin Crossroads | Solar Installation 40kW” /][fusion_image image=”https://inovateus.comtestwp/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/TXR-DJI_0043-1200×675.jpg” image_id=”17880″ link=”” linktarget=”_self” alt=”Terrapin Crossroads | Solar Installation 40kW” /][fusion_image image=”https://inovateus.comtestwp/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/TXR-TJKan-LyrinKan-PhilLesh-IMG_7972-1200×675.jpg” image_id=”17887″ link=”” linktarget=”_self” alt=”TJ Kanczuzewski, Lyrin Kanczuzewski & Phil Lesh @ Terrapin Crossroads” /][fusion_image image=”https://inovateus.comtestwp/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/TXR-TJKan-LyrinKan-PhilLesh-IMG_7973-1200×675.jpg” image_id=”17888″ link=”” linktarget=”_self” alt=”TJ Kanczuzewski, Lyrin Kanczuzewski & Phil Lesh @ Terrapin Crossroads” /][fusion_image image=”https://inovateus.comtestwp/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/TXR-DJI_0068-2-1200×675.jpg” image_id=”17891″ link=”” linktarget=”_self” alt=”Terrapin Crossroads | Solar Installation 40kW” /][/fusion_images][fusion_separator style_type=”single solid” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” class=”” id=”” sep_color=”” top_margin=”” bottom_margin=”20px” border_size=”” icon=”fa-music” icon_circle=”” icon_circle_color=”” width=”” alignment=”center” /][fusion_text]To celebrate this commingling of music and solar, the Terrapin family invited everyone to a solar celebration at the venue on Mothers Day’s 2017. I was honored to not only say a few words about the solar installation (see video below), but to also sit in and play keyboards (wow!) with Midnight North and Phil Lesh on a slow-grooving classic from the Dead’s repertoire, “Tennessee Jed” (see sample of performance in second video). Indeed, as the song says (with a slight lyrical variation), there was “no place I’d rather be” than singing the praises of solar, jamming with one of my musical idols, and having my Mom, Lyrin Kanczuzewski, there to share the experience on that special day—she even joined us on stage for the dedication.
[/fusion_text][fusion_builder_row_inner][fusion_builder_column_inner type=”1_2″ layout=”1_2″ spacing=”” center_content=”no” hover_type=”none” link=”” min_height=”” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” class=”” id=”” background_color=”” background_image=”” background_position=”left top” background_repeat=”no-repeat” border_size=”0″ border_color=”” border_style=”solid” padding=”” dimension_margin=”” animation_type=”” animation_direction=”left” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_offset=”” last=”no” border_position=”all”][fusion_youtube id=”snK_pnK1r6c” width=”” height=”” autoplay=”false” api_params=”” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” class=”” /][/fusion_builder_column_inner][fusion_builder_column_inner type=”1_2″ layout=”1_2″ spacing=”” center_content=”no” hover_type=”none” link=”” min_height=”” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” class=”” id=”” background_color=”” background_image=”” background_position=”left top” background_repeat=”no-repeat” border_size=”0″ border_color=”” border_style=”solid” padding=”” dimension_margin=”” animation_type=”” animation_direction=”left” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_offset=”” last=”no” border_position=”all”][fusion_youtube id=”P_r8GpRRmmk” width=”” height=”” autoplay=”false” api_params=”” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” class=”” /][/fusion_builder_column_inner][/fusion_builder_row_inner][fusion_text]Like music, building a brilliant tomorrow with solar energy is a collaborative effort. As solar advocates, we must consistently communicate about solar to multiple audiences in different ways. One of the guests at Terrapin was author David Meerman Scott, who co-wrote Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead. One of the lessons from his book was how the Dead’s open-hearted willingness to let anyone record their concerts and share those “bootleg” recordings became an unexpectedly effective marketing tool, helping to build the huge Deadhead fanbase. The video below shares a few words from David at the event:
With that in mind, on behalf of the Inovateus Solar team, I want to thank Phil and the Terrapin family, Fronius, IronRidge, Rexel and SunFirst Solar for contributing their solar artistry to this musical landmark and helping us all to build a brilliant tomorrow with the combined efforts of our individual talents.
By T.J. Kanczuzewski, president and CEO, Inovateus Solar
