My name is Matthew Barrett. I grew up in Port Angeles, and I'm so glad to be back home on the Olympic Peninsula.

Solar can be a controversial topic, and sometimes people come at me with something like, "Of course you believe in solar, you're in the solar industry!" While I admit that there's always potential for bias, I respectfully point out they have it backwards: “Of course I’m in the solar industry, I believe in solar.”

That is, I believed before I joined, and then joined because I believed.

I left home in 2002 to go to school in Jacksonville FL, and afterwards worked as a science educator at EcoEd Resources Science Center. Classes there included workshops where kids built and programmed robots to handle environmental challenges. Students needing help with the science fair found solar reactive materials among the options. While my path took me in a different direction, I continued to follow the trends in green tech. As a professor of psychology, I included environmental and engineering projects among potential extra credit opportunities, focusing on the psychology of creative thinking, problem solving and community building.

Leaving teaching was hard, and the company that I left it for turned out to be a terrible fit. Shortly after I moved back home to WA in 2016, they closed the building where I worked, and followed that with more layoffs. Facing unemployment, I talked to reps from a solar company that had invested in a relatively new panel design specifically for cloudy areas like the PNW. A few months later I joined the solar movement in Washington, and within the year I was traveling the state telling people about the opportunities to cut their power bill. In 2022 I started Solar King of Kitsap because I was done traveling—Kitsap is my home, and I want to give it my best.

I'm so blessed to work in an industry that is changing the world for the better, as well as each and every customer. It's rare to have everything line up so perfectly that way, and I'm humbled to be here to witness it. If you live in Kitsap, you’ll probably see me at public events. I’m proud of my community, and determined to help it grow. If you feel the same way, let’s talk about what we can do together. In our own way, we are each in charge of our future, and I believe the future can be bright.