Thomas J. (Tom) Starrs has more than 25 years of renewable energy experience, with an emphasis on both distributed- and utility-scale solar photovoltaic market assessment and business development. Tom is a past president of the American Solar Energy Society.  During his doctoral work at at U.C. Berkeley, Tom was a key architect of California’s net metering law. He was also the principle architect of Washington State’s net metering law (the second state net metering law in the US)

He has served as a legal council to the Interstate Renewable Energy Council, were he assisted a mutitdude of states in developing energy policy. Tom serves as a representative to the Renewables Northwest Project.  Tom is Vice President, Market Strategy and Policy for SunPower Corporation, responsible for the company's policy analysis and advocacy, market forecasting and analysis, and downstream market strategy.

Before accepting his current position in August 2013, Tom spent four years with the leadership team of SunPower's Utility and Commercial, Americas business unit, building the company's utility-scale project development capability. Tom managed the land-use permitting, transmission/interconnection, and real property assessment, acquisition and entitlement efforts for the California Valley Solar Ranch (250MWac) and the Antelope Valley Solar Project [now Solar Star project] (579MWac), among others.

Before joining SunPower in March 2009, Tom was Managing Director of Solar Power for Iberdrola Renewables, Inc., the U.S. arm of the world’s leading renewable energy development company. He launched and led Iberdrola’s entry into the utility-scale solar power project development in the United States, including shaping and implementing a business plan, acquiring a portfolio of high-value sites for utility-scale projects, and extending the company’s global leadership in wind power development to include solar power as well.