Solar Power: Rupal Bain (MBA/MS ’08) on Making an Impact

This story is part of Erb’s 30th Anniversary series, celebrating three decades of impact at the intersection of business and sustainability.

“I begin each morning wanting to get outside,” said Rupal Bain (MBA/MS ’08). The Pasadena-based alum has hiked in the Himalayas, rock climbed, and takes her sons camping every six weeks. But even on an ordinary day, she might walk her kids to school, get the mail, or simply stand on her balcony to “connect with the sun.”

The connection with the sun also powers Bain’s career. As director of project acquisitions and delivery (M&A) at Nautilus Solar Energy, she procures solar and storage assets across the United States. Her work involves project development, managing a national portfolio, M&A for distributed energy resources, and cross‑functional leadership. “My mission is to make environmental solutions financially feasible for the business,” she said. “I went into M&A and project development because that’s where impact becomes tangible. If the financials don’t pencil, the project never sees the light of day. I wanted to be in the role that removes those barriers and gets clean energy built.”

Bain received her BS in engineering and came to the Erb Institute knowing she wanted a career in renewable energy. However, she didn’t know the extent to which she could create her own path through the program and develop projects that pushed her to think creatively and critically about the work. “I was living my best life at Michigan,” she said. “Erb showed me it was possible to be a trailblazer, and I’ve been able to leverage that skill set repeatedly throughout my career.”

For Bain, this included two projects abroad as a graduate student. She described creating a solar lantern product and business plan with a woman-led organization in Odisha (formerly Orissa), India. The environmental solutions she brought forward also had to address the social and economic challenges the client faced. “Finding one solution that solves many problems is incredibly challenging. My engineering background helped,” she said. 

She also traveled to Africa to work on a Kenyan wildlife conservation project that combined solutions integrating business and sustainability, “which is what Erb is all about.” 

Bain still draws on the skills she learned by designing these projects. For example, she saw that ideas on paper don’t always translate to everyday applications, where “getting the real-world context and perspective of the problem can really shift your whole approach.” Simply put, if it doesn’t work easily in context, then it’s not sustainable. 

“It has to be not only feasible: The construction and engineering has to be able to work. Then you’ve got to make your investors happy. So it’s the Erb piece all over again,” she said. Erb taught her the skills, how to apply them, and to look at the whole picture as a leader today. “I’m even getting emotional talking about it, because this was such a formidable time in my life,” she said. “It changed my whole trajectory.”