‘People would abuse me’: how a ‘climate capitalist’ learned to sell solar in Victoria’s coal country

Andy McCarthy went from town pariah – being spat on and having his shop vandalised – to employing hundreds of people

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When Andy McCarthy moved to the heart of Victoria’s coal country in 2010 to start selling rooftop solar panels he was greeted with “open ridicule”.

But as his Gippsland Solar firm began “having a few wins and making a bit of a splash”, the response on the streets of his town of Mirboo North, and especially the local footy field, took on a more menacing tone.

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