About RG&E

RG&E is dedicated to providing effective, reliable and efficient energy solutions and services to business, non-profit and utility clients.

Founded in 2021, Renewable Gas & Electric (RG&E) is developing projects that produce and utilize biogas that has been upgraded for use in place of fossil natural gas. Renewable Natural Gas (RNG) comes from a variety of sources, including municipal solid waste landfills, digesters at water resource recovery facilities (wastewater treatment plants), livestock farms, food production facilities and organic waste management operations. RNG will be used locally at the site where the gas is generated or, in some cases, may be further treated and injected into natural gas transmission or distribution pipelines. RG&E also develops solar, storage, wind and other renewable projects.

Industries

RG&E has extensive experince and skillsets in these industries and more:

Agriculture
Manufacturing
Hotels
Hospitality
Municipality

LEADERSHIP

RG&E leadership team comprises experts in all aspects of the renewable project life cycle.

Sam Houston

From 1984-2006 Sam Houston, with partners, developed $1billion+ of industrial, commercial, residential community projects, numerous high-end single and multi-family residential, large fractional residential and affordable housing. Sam’s responsibilities have included project origination, sourcing and contracting land purchase, equity and debt origination, negotiations, perfecting water rights, creating metropolitan districts, overseeing the master-plan, overseeing infrastructure design, overseeing architecture and the bidding and construction, putting together a sales team, marketing program and selling the properties.

Since 2006 Sam has focused on carbon reduction, first working for a global carbon finance firm, he built and ran the North American division for several years. In 2009 Sam co-founded and was President and CEO for 10+ years of a renewable energy company formed to develop, co-develop and own solar projects with numerous projects in six states. The company originated or co-developed the projects and organized all parts of the capital stack required to build and own the solar systems for schools, cities, water district’s commercial and industrial customers, and utilities, completing 100+ MW of behind the meter solar projects. Sam is also in the seventh year of development of a 500 MW, 8 hour pumped storage hydro project.

Since 2019 Sam has been working on microgrids, building relationships in the renewable energy field, originating and developing projects, and building the team at Renewable Gas and Electric, LLC which he and partners formally launched in 2021.

Educated at Fettes College in Edinburgh, Scotland

Richard Horn

Richard Horn brings over 40 years of hydro, wind, solar, biomass, and battery back-up power related experience to the company, and as Vice-President and Chief Operating Officer of Site Constructors, Inc., his versatility, knowledge, and conscientious endeavors have assured Site Constructors, Inc. its recognition in the industry.

Richard has been involved with farming all his life in a small Northern California town, in which he still resides half of the year. It’s here that Richard has annually harvested over 200 thousand pounds of almonds and walnuts, and being a long-term resident, Richard has established valuable business relationships with local farmers, and is extremely knowledgeable of the area.

Since 1985 Richard has owned and operated Site Constructors, Inc., a renewable energy company involved in the development, construction, and maintenance of hydro, wind, solar, and biomass projects, along with battery back-up systems. Richard continues to run the day-to-day operations and is a leader in renewable energy standards and goals. To-date the company has performed over 550 MW of wind, more than 7 MW of hydro, 120 MW of solar, and over 5 MW of battery storage.

Richard also co-owns and operates multiple wind farms in Hawaii where he resides the remainder of the year.

Paul Tobin

Paul Tobin founded Gridswitch in June 2021, and assumed the role of President and Chief Executive Officer. Gridswitch focuses on designing, constructing, and maintaining green energy assets.

Over the past 25+ years, Paul has served in a number of roles and most recently was the Senior Vice President of Digital and Engineering Services for Westinghouse, overseeing its extensive Global Digital and Engineering Services operating business.

Prior to this, he served as Executive Vice President of Rolls-Royce nuclear group, leading a global nuclear digital and engineering business which serviced half of the world’s commercial nuclear facilities with a workforce of 300+ people around the world.

Prior to joining Rolls-Royce, Paul started PKMJ Technical Services and functioned as the company President and CEO. In this role, Paul was accountable for all aspects of a startup small business. Objectives included creating market differentiated offerings in the energy sector, growing the company footprint, managing financials, and providing cost effective engineering and technology services. After growing the company from 0 to 350 employees, and a customer portfolio consisting of 100% market share in the Western hemisphere, and parts of Europe, Paul sold PKMJ to Rolls-Royce in 2013.

Paul and PKMJ/Rolls-Royce were recognized by the energy industry winning several INPO (Institute of Nuclear Power Operators) TIP (top industry performance) awards for creating innovative services and solutions that supported safe cost-effective operations of power generation assets and saving customers over $100M annually.

Paul serves on the Board of Directors of the following companies:

Verdant Microgrid

Renewable Gas and Electric

Gridswitch

Paul holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Connecticut (Storrs)

Nigel Dickens

With over 34 years of energy industry experience Nigel is a profit orientated deal maker with a wide technical knowledge of power generation technologies and applications.

Nigel has a vast experience in all aspects of energy projects in the 20kw to 20MW range from fossil fuelled generation, landfill, biogas and waste to energy technologies. Nigel has developed intuitive financial models and innovative commercial solutions for the CHP & DG market worldwide, he has also managed and pioneered the development of several new CHP market sectors within the UK, Europe and North America.

Nigel was co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Zantingh Energy Systems Ltd., a United Kingdom-based CHP Company demonstrating substantial profitable growth during its first years of operation prior to its sale to ABB.

He has wide experience of the hospitality sector, having been involved in over 200+ hotel energy projects in the UK, Europe, and the US.

With deep technical knowledge of small to medium scale generation equipment and applications, together with a distinct ability to create and develop innovative commercial solutions to complex market issues.

Educated in Durham, Nigel is a veteran of the British Armed Forces.”