Not what we predicted, Paul’s story

Paul’s story

Joined 2010, UK – I co-founded Lightsource in 2010, and the whole thing came about almost completely by accident. I’d been working with Nick Boyle on some other investment ideas when the Feed-in Tariffs (solar subsidies from the government) came in – we ended up in a bar somewhere in London one night, it came up in conversation and the rest is history.

I already had experience in renewables in Europe, and it was clear to me that there was a great opportunity and a lot of potential in the proposition in the UK. From that initial conversation, everything sort of snowballed and took on a life of its own. I was still working in my previous role while Nick gathered support for the concept, and then things fell into place and all of a sudden we had a new business!

Back in 2010, I couldn’t have imagined the solar industry we find ourselves in now. The current position, the cost efficiency of subsidy-free solar, the competitiveness with fossil fuels, the stability of the market… Not many people saw this coming! We’re not on the trajectory we imagined 10 years ago, but we’re definitely not complaining.

Personally, I find that half of the fun of my role is all that there is to do. You wake up every morning with a list to achieve, and it’s all good stuff, things that drive the business forward, things that make a measurable difference. The culture of Lightsource bp is one of the things I’m most proud of.

Having independence in how you do things, and working with people who really enjoy what they do, are some of the best parts of working for a small (ish) company. The joy of working for Lightsource bp is having the freedom and the responsibility to go out and achieve things. There are lots of tangible outcomes of hard work. You can directly influence, create and achieve things here, it’s what makes us different. You’re not a small cog in a big wheel, you’re an instrumental part of our success.

Paul McCartie, Group Chief Investment Officer

Corporate biography

Paul co-founded the company in 2010. His responsibilities include debt and equity fundraising for all solar asset developments, project investment structuring and M&A.

He is a member of Lightsource bp’s investment committee and a board director. During his tenure, Paul has raised over £1.6 billion of project financing and led the recent BlackRock equity transaction in the UK.

Up to 2010, he spent six years in the power finance team at Investec Bank, and prior to this Paul was Assistant Director of project finance at Rolls-Royce Power Ventures, an independent power project developer based in London.

Be the change, join Lightsource bp

[button target=”blank” link=”https://careers.lightsourcebp.com”]Search careers at Lightsource bp[/button]