Scaling Clean: Emilie Flanagan, CEO of Carson Power

In today’s permitting environment, clean energy developers are navigating more than engineering and economics. They’re navigating community perception.

It’s easy to mistake social media comments, public hearings, or a handful of vocal opponents as the full picture of community sentiment. But as my latest Scaling Clean guest, Emilie Flanagan, CEO of Carson Power, shared, that’s often not reality.

Carson Power is a distributed generation developer with solar projects across New York and Illinois and a growing pipeline of battery storage. What stood out in this conversation is how the company approaches development in an increasingly noisy, complex environment.

Here are three takeaways from our conversation.

“Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast”

In an industry facing policy swings, supply chain disruptions, and shifting market signals, there’s constant pressure to move quickly.

But borrowing a motto from the Navy SEALs, Carson Power operates with the philosophy: “slow is smooth, and smooth is fast.”

In the early days of building a company, the instinct is often to rush: secure deals, move projects forward, and generate cash flow. But Emilie reflected that not every decision benefits from speed. In high-stakes environments like energy development, rushing can introduce risk and costly mistakes.

Taking the time to do things properly can ultimately accelerate outcomes. Speed matters, but precision matters more.

The real community sentiment comes from direct conversations

Battery storage is still a relatively new technology in many communities. That unfamiliarity can create fear and resistance.

But Emilie emphasized that developers can’t rely on the loudest voices, especially online, to understand what communities actually think about a project.

At Carson, community engagement starts well before permitting. The team spends months meeting with local officials, landowners, and neighbors, often in informal, one-on-one settings, before a project is formally introduced.

In these conversations, developers uncover specific concerns - drainage, visual impact, safety - that can be addressed through design changes, mitigation strategies, or community benefit agreements.

In one example, a concerned neighbor worried about water runoff was brought into the design process. By incorporating additional mitigation measures based on that input, the project not only addressed the concern but gained support from someone who initially opposed it.

Leadership is about helping teams “see the signal”

Rather than acting solely as a decision-maker, Emilie focuses on helping her team “see the signal” - to step back, filter out noise, and focus on what actually matters.

This perspective was critical when Emilie chose not to expand solely within solar. Instead, Emilie made an early move into storage, recognizing it was about to scale rapidly alongside solar. That decision positioned Carson Power ahead of a broader industry shift from standalone solar to integrated solar + storage.

Leadership is about helping teams lift their heads, reassess direction, and ensure they’re solving the right problems, not just reacting to the loudest signals.

Why This Conversation Matters

In today’s environment, developers must learn to navigate community perception, misinformation, policy uncertainty, and rapidly evolving market conditions.

Below are some of Emilie’s reflections:

• In high-stakes environments, taking the time to make the right decisions often leads to faster, more durable progress.
• The most visible opposition isn’t always representative of broader community sentiment. The real sentiment is often uncovered by in-person conversations with local officials, landowners, and neighbors.
• The next wave of opportunity won’t always look obvious at first. Leadership is increasingly about filtering signals from noise. In a fast-moving, high-pressure environment, the ability to step back, challenge assumptions, and redirect focus may be the most valuable skill in development today.

The developers who succeed will be the ones who slow down, separate signal from noise, and listen beyond the loudest voices.

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