3Phases, Inc. began the journey towards its current mission and vision as 3Phases Energy Services, LLC in 2001, one of the few deregulated energy traders left in California after the state's catastrophic energy crisis.

Back then, we sold renewable energy to a host of different customers, including United Parcel Service and Whole Foods. By 2002 we had expanded into carbon offsets trading, eventually serving organizations such as Wells Fargo, HSBC, FedEx, IBM and DuPont as well as U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, General Services Administration and the U.S. Air Force in addition to non-profits such as World Wildlife Fund and Greenpeace. Our solar business began in 2004 with small residential and commercial installations, and grew to 1-2MW projects for government and commercial customers. We pioneered some of the first power purchase agreements (PPAs) in the U.S.

Along the way, we won a number of awards, staffed four offices along the Pacific coast and employed over 30 people.

In 2007, our carbon offsets business was spun off into what is now 3Degrees, Inc.

In 2008, Governor Bill Ritter Jr. of Colorado cut the ribbon on a 2MW solar project at Ft. Carson Army base, the 2nd largest of its kind in the U.S. and 6th largest in the world at that time. It used 27,000 First Solar panels, was built by Conergy, sold to Morgan Stanley and occupies 3.5 city blocks. To see photographs of this project, click here. Since 2007, the company has invested heavily in the development of intellectual property designed to measure and value social, environmental and economic factors that typically do not end up on balance sheets, so that renewable energy developments that positively impact society can be assessed for their true value. To learn more, please visit the URSULA Project.

 

ABOUT FOUNDER AND MANAGING DIRECTOR ERIK ROTHENBERG

Erik Rothenberg has been an entrepreneur for nearly 25 years. After graduating from University of Pennsylvania, he worked in import and export, just as the “Four Tigers” (Taiwan, Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore) were making headlines and the Pacific Rim era was beginning. He founded his own trading company, Atlas Corporation, in 1991, handling agricultural commodities, nutritional supplements and plant oils across North and South America, Asia and Europe, until 2006.

In 1993 he co-founded SoftAware, a Los Angeles based Internet service provider which by the late 1990’s had become the 3rd largest data center in the world before being eventually absorbed by Cable and Wireless PLC.

In 1998, he co-founded a non-profit to advocate for sustainable agriculture, which successfully challenged a flawed U.S. rule in federal district court.

In 2001, with the California energy crisis looming, Rothenberg co-founded and led 3Phases Energy Services, LLC through a six year rapid growth phase. In early 2007, he purchased the outstanding shares of the company and sold 3Phases’ carbon offsets trading division.

Asking the question of why solar prices had to always compete with coal prices when there were so many quantifiable benefits and avoided costs to installing solar, Rothenberg spent the next three years in research and development on a system that would measure the positive and negative impact of anything on a given high level goal.

The result was URSULA an information technology services company that facilitates measurement and valuation and which may also be leveraged to serve the highest quality of life for all life on Earth.

In 2010, Rothenberg re-launched 3Phases’ solar project development business and envisions a day when the URSULA measurement system will help to define the true costs of fossil fuels against the true value of solar, upping the value equation for all involved.