If you listened to Episode 261 , then you're no stranger to Mr. Sheldon Kimber of Intersect Power. But I wanted to bring Sheldon back, especially in this month, where we're thinking hard about what can the current administration and our industry do to elevate our voice to ensure we take massive action on climate change. Sheldon wrote an article back in the fall, and it got a fair amount of traction on LinkedIn (even Jigar Shah and many others commented on it). I wanted to bring Sheldon on to tal...
Jan 28, 2021•57 min•Season 7Ep. 336
Andy Klump holds the current and long-standing record of the most downloaded episode on SunCast. That's right, coming in more than 2000 downloads. I wanted to have Andy back because there's a lot about this man's life in how he ended up in China being a trusted resource for so many companies and individuals like myself around the world from Europe, to the Americas. I wanted to hear how he came about this venture called Clean Energy Associates, and I wanted to hear how he built through this adven...
Jan 21, 2021•1 hr 49 min•Season 7Ep. 335
Today's entrepreneur I have been introduced to multiple times since 2014. Thanks to the homebound lockdowns of the pandemic this year, we finally had a chance to get to know one another. Matt Hankey is the Founder and CEO of New Energy Equity, one of the fastest-growing companies in our industry. They're the fourth largest solar commercial company in the US seventh largest developer in the United States, and one of the fastest-growing solar developers in the DC area. Suffice to say, this will be...
Jan 14, 2021•56 min•Season 7Ep. 334
Welcome to another Tactical Tuesday, a short-form conversation with subject-matter experts designed to give you practical tools, tips and advice for building your solar business or career. What you’re about to hear is a recorded keynote from our SunCast Career Summit . Paula Glover is the President and CEO for the American Association of Blacks in Energy (AABE). Established in 1977, the American Association of Blacks in Energy is an association founded and dedicated to ensuring the input of Afri...
Jan 12, 2021•1 hr•Season 7Ep. 333
This is Part Two of the episode we began earlier in the week with SEIA’s President Abby Hopper. We have a lot of ground left to cover, and we get into some GREAT insights from Abby in this one. But if you missed Part 1, I’d recommend you start there, then come to this one for the rest of the story. Abby really gets into the details on this episode about how we all can help hold President-elect Biden to account for the awesome opportunity before him to leave a lasting clean energy legacy. Are the...
Jan 07, 2021•54 min•Season 7Ep. 332
Welcome back and Happy New Year, Solar Warrior! If you’re in the solar or energy storage industry, then today’s guest will be no stranger to you. I hope I do justice to making this useful and interesting, as she’s shared most of her thoughts and plans with us in a variety of forums. Abigail Ross Hopper became the first female President and CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) in January 2017 just as the Obama-era solar boom was being handed off to the Trump administration. Abby ...
Jan 05, 2021•45 min•Season 7Ep. 331
Happy New Year, Solar Warrior! In early December, I had a chance to sit down with CPS Energy executives to discuss their latest RFP, and I was amazed by the depth of answers they provided. Not only we discussed how the RFP is shaped, but also the underlying philosophy and methodology supporting the landmark power call for the Lonestar state! As many of you are well aware, having listened to the interview with Paula Gold-Williams (the CEO of CPS Energy) some weeks ago, the largest public power ut...
Dec 31, 2020•41 min•Season 7Ep. 330
I am honored to have you joining me yet again for another foray into the world of clean and solar-powered energy. Merry Christmas, and happy almost new year to all of you who are listening during the holiday season. Ryan Simpson is the head of marketing for Trina solar North America. He and I have been fellow sales and marketing colleagues and solar warriors in the hardware side of the PV industry now for going on two decades. I love hearing how he parlayed his experience working for McDonald's ...
Dec 30, 2020•1 hr 1 min•Season 7Ep. 329
Merry Christmas to you. If you're tuning in today, it is Christmas Eve. Yes, we are still publishing because it's Thursday. I hope that you'll get a ton of value from today's story. We can keep this short and sweet because Benigno Villareal and his story speak for themselves. Many of you have likely never heard of Vive Energía unless you're doing business in Mexico. Over there, Benny and his partners have developed a massive portfolio and track record reputation across wind and solar. And I've l...
Dec 24, 2020•49 min•Season 7Ep. 328
I'm honored that you're joining us for another fantastic foray into the world of solar energy. And I'm even more honored that you're tuning in this week. Merry Christmas to all of you listening. Some of you will identify with today's guests and the problems that he solves. If you've spent any time developing large or small solar projects, you know it can be an endless string of whack-a-mole in terms of organizing, checking off tasks, data rooms, diligence, checklists, Dropbox, Excel, Asana, Sale...
Dec 22, 2020•45 min•Season 7Ep. 327
On Thanksgiving, you might have missed our excellent interview with Solar+ Storage entrepreneur and solar pioneer Arnold Leitner. Well in that episode, which I highly recommend you revisit clicking here , we glossed over a fun fact that his company YouSolar, Inc. is among the only 13% of companies that have launched a regulated crowdfunding campaign on a website called StartEngine and raised more than a million dollars, which helped to keep you solar alive during the pandemic, no less. Today we’...
Dec 18, 2020•23 min•Season 7Ep. 322
As we head into the end of the year, it's often filled with a lot of stories a lot of time traditionally spent around the table around the cocktail, happy hours with our friends reminiscing and telling tall tales. I thought it'd be fun, as we have so many stories on the solar coaster to tell some tall tales, some true tales, and as such wanted to bring back an old friend. Perhaps you were one of those who's been with us from the beginning, then you'll recognize today's guest, Mr. TJ Kanczuzewski...
Dec 17, 2020•37 min•Season 7Ep. 326
For those of you who are up on recent episodes, perhaps you’ll recognize today’s guest, Gregg Dixon of Voltus, Inc., recently featured in episode 316. Gregg gave us a fantastic insight into the world of Demand Response, and the way that through his company Voltus, Inc. and his deep experience with a company called EnerNOC, he has learned how the grid is necessarily evolving and integrating new Distributed Energy Resources (DER). There’s so much to unpack around DER that we didn’t have time to co...
Dec 15, 2020•41 min•Season 7Ep. 325
If you didn’t meet today’s guest during our SunCast Weekly Roundup, Live at SPI video series, then you’re in luck because Fatima Ahmad is one of the most knowledgeable folks I know on how Congress gets informed on the climate crisis and how they can take action. Did you even know that there’s a House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis? Neither did I. And what’s more, they’ve compiled a VERY comprehensive document to help guide legislators and it’s a 547 page treasure trove of information! Bu...
Dec 12, 2020•32 min•Season 7Ep. 324
Today’s entrepreneur is in rare company. I can’t recall that I’ve ever interviewed an entrepreneur who’s lost a Billion dollar contract. That story alone is worth tuning in today. But you’ll also learn how James Wagoner, and his Storage startup Joule Case, became the live events power provider for Live Nation, how he’s future-proofing consumer power needs thanks to a few failed startups and the tribulations of Covid. As Joule Case’s CEO, James builds teams, manages resources, and aligns to the l...
Dec 10, 2020•1 hr 9 min•Season 7Ep. 323
Today's entrepreneur is going to show us how to use artificial intelligence to streamline customer acquisition. Austin Rosenbaum is the Denver-based Founder of Demand IQ, an A.I. based technology platform that promises to turbocharge your solar marketing and sales efforts. I've really enjoyed getting to know Austin since I met him on a conference panel this past summer, and it's just so clear to me that this young entrepreneur is on point on the digital trends that matter to small and medium-siz...
Dec 03, 2020•43 min•Season 7Ep. 321
Today's entrepreneur is no stranger to not just business in the developing world, but also bridging the gap between business development, sales, and nonprofit fundraising and growth. It's an honor to be able to introduce Allison Archambault and the work of EarthSpark International on this Giving Tuesday . Allison developed not just her career, but the organization that she's been leading now for a decade, providing light, access to opportunities, and what she refers to as feminist electrificatio...
Dec 01, 2020•1 hr 2 min•Season 7Ep. 319
As the title might suggest today, is Giving Tuesday. But what exactly is Giving Tuesday? You can check out more at the show notes down below where we get more insight into Giving Tuesday. We first introduced Giving Tuesday, to our audience here on SunCast a year ago with Kristina Skierka , which is still a worthwhile interview to give a listen to (listen to that interview clicking here ). Today, we're going to follow the Giving Tuesday tradition with an interview of my friend Allison Archambault...
Dec 01, 2020•15 min•Season 7Ep. 320
Happy Thanksgiving to those of you faithful who listen on the day that episodes are produced. My dear friend Arnold Leitner, an entrepreneur and pioneer in his own right, founded a company called SkyFuel that, as I was kicking off my career way back in 2005, was already taken on investor dollars and cranking out a really novel product in the concentrating solar photovoltaic industry. For those of you who've been following along, CSP has been sidetracked lately by the ridiculously fast dropping c...
Nov 26, 2020•1 hr 3 min•Season 7Ep. 318
What you’re about to hear is a recorded version of an insightful debate we hosted at SPI, ESI & NORTH AMERICA SMART ENERGY WEEK 2020 . Can energy management software alone replace batteries? This was an amazing roundtable discussion sparring back and forth between our good friends, John Powers over at Extensible Energy, Andrew Tanner at Yotta Energy, and also Jonás Villalba from Promise Energy, three practitioners both using, creating, and evangelizing energy management software and storage....
Nov 24, 2020•1 hr 2 min•Season 7Ep. 317
Today's entrepreneur is no stranger to distributed energy, and high growth startups. Gregg Dixon has held executive marketing and sales roles in public companies in consulting, energy, petrochemical products, heck, even crayons. But nothing has captured and commanded his attention and focus, like saving customers money on their energy bills. We're going to dig into how he's helped literally thousands of businesses save money and how he's turning an entire industry on its head with smart tech and...
Nov 19, 2020•1 hr 11 min•Season 7Ep. 316
Mark Mrohs is a true solar pioneer and lifelong dedicated educator for our industry. If you missed Part 1 of this episode, I really encourage you to press pause here, and go back and listen to part 1 . I think that it would be helpful to better understand Mark’s background and trajectory. Today, Mark and I go into a lot on his theory of learning , where he sees the world of virtual reality and whether or not we're ready for it. VR Headsets like Oculus and many other headset makers are changing t...
Nov 17, 2020•54 min•Season 7Ep. 315
We're going to jump into what I expect to be a very exciting and interesting conversation with Mark Mrohs, a true solar pioneer. A couple of things as his accreditations just to set the stage, Mark was Training Director for ARCO Solar Inc, Siemens Solar, AstroPower, SunPower, SunEdison, of course, he's an instructor for Solar Energy International, and he was a Technician at Spectrolab Inc. before that. He's also had some time now focused on virtual reality with a young company called Interplay L...
Nov 12, 2020•47 min•Season 7Ep. 314
What you’re about to hear is a recorded keynote of Day 2 of our SunCast Career Summit . Clean Energy has led the job-creation efforts for the decade since the last recession. Hear from industry insiders, SEIA’s Abby Hopper, Lightsource BP’s Emilie Wangerman, GRID Alternatives’ Erika Symmonds, and Clean Energy for Biden’s Audrey Lee, Ph.D., on what roles are being hired for and where we might see the greatest momentum coming out of the current crisis. Get access to the video replay of this and ot...
Nov 10, 2020•1 hr 7 min•Season 7Ep. 313
I have really enjoyed the conversations that I've been having with Miss Emilie Wangerman, the Vice President of Business Development for Lightsource BP. Emilie has over 8 years of experience in power markets and energy policy, on both the buy-and-sell side of solar, storage, and distributed energy resources (DERs), as well as experience with generation and electric system operations and utility rate design, which is complemented by her background in technology development and process engineering...
Nov 05, 2020•54 min•Season 7Ep. 312
We're so excited to be back with you for SPI, ESI & NORTH AMERICA SMART ENERGY WEEK 2020 in its new virtual format. This is the final edition of the SunCast Weekly Roundup, presented by LG Solar, where we decided to go LIVE and catch some of the big takeaways from the first-ever Virtual Solar Power International. In today’s episode, my Co-Host Joshua Porter from SolarCoaster and I held interesting conversations Inside the Green Room with cleantech leaders like Erika Myers from Smart Electric...
Nov 02, 2020•1 hr 10 min•Season 7Ep. 311
Today’s guest is Arch Rao, Founder & CEO of Span.IO, a technology company reinventing the electrical panel to enable the rapid adoption of renewable energy. He is an engineer and entrepreneur with expertise in research, development and commercialization of energy technologies. We’re going to not only explore how Span is advancing the very technology that supports home energy devices, but also the background of this engineer and entrepreneur, and his expertise in storage systems and their int...
Oct 29, 2020•1 hr 19 min•Season 7Ep. 310
Hear insights from clean-energy thought leaders like Daisy Meyer, Robert Broadwater, Gwen Yamamoto and Lavannya Pulluveetil Barrera, as they share with us their insights on week 6 sessions, as well as their experience of participating in this fully-virtual format of North America’s most popular cleantech tradeshow. We also had Brian Lynch, LG Electronic’s Director of Solar and Storage, and Kenneth Locklin, Director at Impax Asset Management, LLC starring in our newest segment, “Industry Pulse, P...
Oct 27, 2020•35 min•Season 7Ep. 309
Today’s guest is Andy Foote, a professional LinkedIn consultant. He’s spent the last decade obsessively testing multiple engagement strategies and building a large and supportive network on the largest professional networking website in the World. His podcast, Foote Notes, is an interview show featuring interesting people that he’s discovered on LinkedIn. Are there other technologies you’ve scouted on the frontlines of the Clean Energy Revolution that you think we should be covering here on SunC...
Oct 27, 2020•1 hr 7 min•Season 7Ep. 308
This week we have a really interesting angle on the way that cleantech companies are lifted from the dust. Today's intrapreneur and entrepreneur is Trish Cozart, Program Manager for the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center at the National Renewable Energy Lab in Colorado. Now, Trish has been recommended by several people, but a special shoutout to Antenna Group for helping make this interview happen for you. Trish and I really dig into how the National Renewable Energy Lab, through its Innovat...
Oct 22, 2020•31 min•Season 7Ep. 307
