Electrifying San Diego and Beyond – San Diego Business Journal

SAN DIEGO – San Diego Gas & Electric’s EV Fleet Day on April 19 at its Century Park campus drew companies from San Diego County and beyond that are helping move the state toward a carbon neutral future.

SDG&E hosts the annual event to encourage sustainability and inform fleet operators about how to go about electrifying their vehicles. It also drew industry experts, infrastructure providers, clean tech and clean transportation information, exhibits and on-site vehicles to explore — with some companies offering ride-alongs in electric vehicles, including a school bus.

The state has established a target that 100% of in-state sales of new passenger cars and trucks will be zero-emission by 2035, ramping up the sales requirement for zero-emission passenger vehicles starting with the 2026 model year, to achieve 100% by 2035.

California has set similar goals for medium-duty, heavy-duty and off-road vehicles and equipment operations, moving toward having zero-emission trucks and buses by 2045.

As part of helping companies with the change, SDG&E says it is working to help address the biggest barrier to electrifying – high upfront costs. SDG&E offers financial incentives for installing charging infrastructure.

State voucher incentives such as California Hybrid and Zero-emission Truck and Bus Voucher Incentive Project and its Innovative Small E-Fleet pilot also help business operators, municipalities and school districts transition to electric and deploy all-electric vehicles at a fraction of the cost.

Locals are Invested and Vested

Geared toward San Diego County fleet managers who operate medium-and heavy-duty vehicles, Fleet Day drew companies with vested interests in electrification.

Local vendors included Eversun Energy Inc., a Bay Park-headquartered business that makes portable, sustainable light towers powered by the sun and rechargeable batteries, and Pro Energy Services LLC out of Escondido, which provides services to companies in the electrical distribution and transmission industries.

Eversun has created light towers that offer 30,000 square feet of illumination, which it hopes will appeal to utility companies, construction sectors and beyond, says Eversun founder Austin Vawter.

Part of the Southern California Energy Innovation Network (SCEIN), a program for startups developing solutions to help California meet its energy goals, Vawter, an engineer, started Eversun in 2018 while searching for a way to keep sports courts lit up at night.

Vawter came up with idea of creating portable lighting using sustainable parts so that he and his friends could continue playing volleyball on the sand at Mission Beach when the sun set.

Beginning as “a telescopic flagpole, golf cart batteries and cheap headlights all wired up,” the product grew to include a modified electric bike battery that made the light tower quieter, put out less pollution and was more portable.

The towers have become streamlined and more sustainable, made with carbon fiber, using lumen LED lamps and a lithium-ion battery system, moving from a consumer-driven sporting goods-type company to a B2B.

Eversun has evolved into making larger light towers that it hopes will appeal to construction crews working into the wee hours, companies working on freeways and first responders.

“The customers we’re going after are moving into clean energy space,” Vawter said.

“There are tons of projects that operate at night in construction, and especially with the heat and the climate change it’s just getting hotter and hotter during the summer.

They’re going to have to shift work at night and then in the wintertime it gets darker earlier, so their daytime shifts are shorter.”

Readying for the Future Today

Pro Energy Services CEO Gavin Nechochea said his company handles all services everything related to utility infrastructure “except putting the pole on the wire,” and works with SDG&E and other utility companies as well as contractors.

A partnership of 2009-founded Warren James Construction and Pro Tool and Equipment Inc., it has grown from 50 employees when it began as its own company in 2018 to nearly 500 employees.

Necochea said his company recently invested in nearly a dozen electric vehicles for its fleet, looking to be a leader working toward meeting state mandates.

“What we’re noticing in electrifying everything is that train that has already left the station and it is it is barreling down the tracks, and if you don’t get with that program, it’s going be real hard to compete at some level, especially here in California,” Necochea said. “There’s opportunity everywhere so you have to be ready to be able to pivot to be able to jump to these different opportunities that pop up.

“We don’t worry about what’s happened or why they’ve done it or the reasons behind it, we just embrace the change.”

Pro Energy Services Group LLC
FOUNDED: 2018 (earlier versions in 2009)
CEO: Gavin Necochea
HEADQUARTERS: Escondido
BUSINESS: Utility-Based Services
REVENUE: from 2018-2020 30% YOY growth
EMPLOYEES: 450
WEBSITE: proeservices.com
CONTACT: 760-744-7077
SOCIAL IMPACT: CEO Necochea is a member of and has done some mentorship with the Latino Business Action Network.
NOTABLE: Roots of the company and Warren James Construction and Pro Tool and Equipment Inc., both San Diego-based companies.

Eversun Energy Inc.
FOUNDED: 2019
CEO: Austin Vawter
HEADQUARTERS: San Diego
BUSINESS: Renewable Energy Equipment Manufacturing
FUNDING: Currently in $2.5M Series A; first VC investment of $300,000 in 2023
EMPLOYEES: 3
WEBSITE: eversun.io
CONTACT: 858-480-9671
SOCIAL IMPACT: Company’s sustainable lighting that helps others be energy efficient
NOTABLE: CEO Vawter is developed the first prototype of Eversun’s product so he and his friends could play beach volleyball after sunset