Welcome to another Tactical Tuesday on SunCast, where we bring you subject-matter expertise, deep insights, and content from our many live broadcasts and trainings. Today's episode is rebroadcast from the RE+ PowerUp Media Zone , a live production of SunCast Media. The Media Zone featured interviews with industry thought leaders, executives and founders to glean their insights about trends and forecasts. Bruce Stewart, president and CEO of Perch Energy, a clean energy tech services platform and ...
Nov 29, 2022•58 min•Season 10Ep. 544
John Berger is a renewable energy veteran deep in the heart of “Energy” country, as we discussed back in Episode 465 . And he’s built more than one successful renewable energy company, but most of you will recognize him as the CEO of Sunnova Energy, the publicly traded solar giant that has helped usher in the modern residential solar revolution. He founded Sunnova in 2012 and has served since as CEO, president and board chair. An energy entrepreneur with more than two decades of industry experie...
Nov 23, 2022•1 hr 11 min•Season 10Ep. 543
Today's special edition podcast offers practical, tactical advice on getting the most from your customer relationships. Through an all-star panel discussion led by Bodhi CEO Scott Nguyen, you'll learn how to double the value of your solar customers through follow-on sales. Join us for insights from Ryan Barnett, market development officer at Palmetto; Preston Booker, head of strategic accounts at BayWa r.e. Solar Systems; Adam Hinckley, vice president, Corporate Development at Enphase Energy; an...
Nov 21, 2022•40 min•Season 10Ep. 542
Piper Foster Wilder is the co-founder and CEO of 60Hertz Energy, the first maintenance software purpose-built for distributed energy resources (DER). DERs are physical and virtual assets deployed across the distribution grid, typically close to load and usually behind the meter, and used individually or in aggregate to provide value to the grid, individual customers, or both. Anchorage, Alaska-based 60Hertz's remote management platform enables maintenance personnel to optimize the potential of s...
Nov 17, 2022•1 hr 35 min•Season 10Ep. 541
In today's Tactical Tuesday, we talk with Andy Redinger, head of the Utilities, Power & Renewable Energy Group at KeyBanc Capital Markets (KBCM). KBCM is Cleveland-based KeyCorp's corporate and investment banking arm. It's North America's leading renewables project finance lender and provides services to clean technology firms in the power generation, smart grid, energy management, and pollution control sectors. Andy discusses KeyBank's response to a spate of fast followers in the renewable ...
Nov 15, 2022•22 min•Season 10Ep. 540
Hawaii native Aric Saunders is a clean energy champion well versed in reaching low to moderate-income communities, creating innovative products, and integrating storage into the grid. Aric is the executive vice president of sales and marketing for Electriq Power, a battery storage company in San Leandro, California. He joined the company as director of business development in 2017 to advise their residential energy storage and go-to-market strategy. Electriq has developed a smart home battery st...
Nov 10, 2022•54 min•Season 10Ep. 539
Perhaps you’ve noticed, but over the past year, I've built a strong friendship with the folks at Sungrow, the leading global inverter solution supplier for renewables. SunCast is presented by Sungrow , afterall, and they are the world’s most bankable inverter brand. But I have known many people who work at nearly all the other inverter manufacturers, and we’ve been sponsored by some of them here at SunCast. But I wondered, what is it that makes Sungrow unique? Why are they the most bankable, and...
Nov 08, 2022•24 min•Season 10Ep. 538
Kimberlee Centera is one of the few female CEOs of a privately held, privately funded utility-scale renewable energy consulting practice. As the founder and CEO of San Diego-based TerraPro Solutions, she's earned an enviable reputation as a risk management expert for developing and financing large-scale energy projects. She and her team have financed more than 12 gigawatts of wind, solar, and energy storage projects valued at more than $6 billion. For Kimberlee, renewables are personal — and her...
Nov 03, 2022•1 hr 19 min•Season 10Ep. 537
Stanford Business School grads Chris Hopper and Sam Adeyemo founded Aurora Solar in 2012 with a mission to reduce solar design costs. They created software that quickly and accurately designs rooftop panels through aerial photos, eliminating the need for the installer to climb on the roof with a tape measure. And it fast-became the industry standard digital tool that every residential solar installer needed in order to empower their increasingly digital-first sales orgs. In today's Tactical Tues...
Nov 01, 2022•30 min•Season 10Ep. 536
Geoff Ferrell is vice president of virtual power plants (VPP) and commercial and industrial (C&I) project business at sonnen, a German-based global energy storage provider fully owned by Royal Dutch Shell. A pioneer for intelligent lithium-based energy storage, sonnen offers customers energy storage and digital energy services like the sonnenBatterie, which optimizes residential solar power and supplies energy at night using stored solar power generated during the day. It built a reputation ...
Oct 27, 2022•1 hr 27 min•Season 10Ep. 535
Kiran Kumaraswamy is a high-caliber energy storage executive focused on the commercialization of technology — specifically, architecting the techno-economic analysis and justification of deployment of hardtech like batteries. He’s had a lot of practice, which contributed in-part to his rise to Vice President of Growth and Head of Commercial Business at Fluence, a global energy storage technology and services company created and backed by Siemens and AES. Kiran is an engineer who can translate te...
Oct 25, 2022•45 min•Season 10Ep. 534
Shannon Miller is the chief executive officer and co-founder of Mainspring Energy — a Menlo Park, California company that sees itself as part of the affordable, reliable, net-zero carbon grid of the future. She leads the design, manufacture, and commercialization of the Mainspring Linear Generator, whose fuel-agnostic design enables it to adjust dynamically for varying fuel quality and different types of fuels. Those fuels include renewables such as biogas, green ammonia, and green hydrogen — wh...
Oct 20, 2022•1 hr 13 min•Season 10Ep. 533
The AES Corporation has dominated almost every category it's ever embraced, and clean energy is no exception. In today's Tactical Tuesday, you'll learn how the Arlington, Virginia-based global power company is building on an innovative work culture to grow its renewable energy portfolio. Woody Rubin, Chief Development Officer (CDO) at AES's wholly-owned clean energy development business, credited the company's success to a "straight climb up of incremental growth" at an "unbelievable scale." He ...
Oct 18, 2022•29 min•Season 10Ep. 532
Six leading clean energy advocates join me and my friend Mike Casey on Episode 6 of our quarterly Cleantech Podcaster’s Roundtable. The rich, one-hour discussion about energy trends, developments, challenges and opportunities is brought to you by Tigercomm , a cleantech public relations and marketing firm, and my company, SunCast Media . What are the leading trends in renewables and clean energy? Tune in for insights from the hosts of notable podcasts like Watts Up , Climate Positive , Clean Pow...
Oct 14, 2022•55 min•Season 10Ep. 531
I like to believe that SunCast opens the door for both you and our guests to be vulnerable with the stories that drive us forward. Today’s episode is one of the more vulnerable and impactful stories I’ve had the privilege of recording, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to help our guest, Nobel Chang, discuss the underlying motivations and life lessons that inform how he lives, works and seeks to better the world around him. A special thank you to Nobel for trusting me with his story, and to y...
Oct 13, 2022•1 hr 16 min•Season 10Ep. 530
Jeff Ressler explained how he learned to leverage data and software to improve customers' lives in SunCast Episode 221 . He returns for today's Tactical Tuesday to tell us how his company's cloud software services are powering the energy transformation. Jeff is the CEO of Clean Power Research , which provides cloud solutions for utility workflow automation, customer engagement and solar data services. I reconnected with Jeff and met his company's product manager, Akanksha Bhat , at the September...
Oct 11, 2022•27 min•Season 10Ep. 529
It's no surprise that Sandhya Ganapathy describes herself as a passionate proponent of clean energy. Sandhya is the CEO of EDP Renewables North America (EDPR NA) and a member of the Management Team of EDP Renewables (EDPR). EDPR is a global leader in renewable energy and the world's fourth-largest wind energy producer. Working there, Sandhya said, is a chance to constantly uncover new ways to put "seed into the ground" — and "harness the powers of the sun and the wind and make a difference for a...
Oct 06, 2022•1 hr 2 min•Season 10Ep. 528
The American-Made program is your fast track to the clean energy revolution. Funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, it incentivizes innovation through prizes, training, teaming, and mentoring, connecting the nation’s entrepreneurs and innovators to America’s national labs and the private sector. The prize, now in its 6th round, recently awarded the 5th round of innovators with millions of dollars to help bring their startup ideas to the world. James Nagel and David Penalva, Co-Founders of Heli...
Oct 05, 2022•20 min•Season 10Ep. 527
SMA has been a cornerstone of renewables for nearly four decades. While their counterparts, like Tesla, didn’t have solar divisions until much more recently, SMA has gradually built one of the largest install-bases of solar customers in the world. With all those installs come hundreds of thousands of satisfied homeowners, many of whom are now eager to embrace the future of the electrified home. How do they remain relevant in this new modern solar+ economy where every manufacturer is tempted to e...
Oct 04, 2022•27 min•Season 10Ep. 526
Many of you have heard one of my close friends & repeat podcast guest, Mike Silvestrini, on how he “and his team” grew Greenskies to be the largest C&I Player in the US (then successfully sold it to Goldman.) However, the story yet-told is the other half of that team , the guy down in the dirt actually drumming up all those sales to iconic companies like Wal-Mart and Target Corporation…Mr. Andrew Chester. He’s been on my Must-Get list for about 5 years now (seriously, it takes the patien...
Sep 29, 2022•1 hr 9 min•Season 10Ep. 525
Today’s guest is a veritable expert on solar and climate change, and has recently served as a lead author for the IPCC’s 6th assessment report. He made his name a few years ago in the energy sector writing a book which explains how we got to the level of low-cost solar we presently enjoy - what was the combination of entrepreneurial effort, technology, and policy that got us here? Further, he explores how that is relevant for future solar & whether the lessons learned can extrapolate to othe...
Sep 27, 2022•31 min•Season 10Ep. 524
Start each day with the Daily Roundup as we bring you the trends and conversations unfolding in Anaheim at the RE+ 2022 conference formerly known as SPI. If you are in Anaheim, visit us at the PowerUp Media Zone, booth 438. You can also watch the show stream live from suncast.live . Are there other technologies you’ve scouted on the frontlines of the Clean Energy Revolution that you think we should be covering here on SunCast? Hit us up - team@suncast.me with your feedback & recommendations....
Sep 23, 2022•41 min•Season 10Ep. 523
We are in Anaheim! Start each day with the Daily Roundup as we bring you the trends and conversations unfolding in Anaheim at the RE+ 2022 conference formerly known as SPI. If you are in Anaheim, visit us at the PowerUp Media Zone, booth 438. You can also watch the show stream live from suncast.live . Are there other technologies you’ve scouted on the frontlines of the Clean Energy Revolution that you think we should be covering here on SunCast? Hit us up - team@suncast.me with your feedback &am...
Sep 22, 2022•36 min•Season 10Ep. 522
We are in Anaheim! Start each day with the Daily Roundup as we bring you the trends and conversations unfolding in Anaheim at the RE+ 2022 conference formerly known as SPI. If you are in Anaheim, visit us at the PowerUp Media Zone, booth 438. You can also watch the show stream live from suncast.live . Are there other technologies you’ve scouted on the frontlines of the Clean Energy Revolution that you think we should be covering here on SunCast? Hit us up - team@suncast.me with your feedback &am...
Sep 21, 2022•37 min•Season 10Ep. 521
We are in Anaheim! Start each day with the Daily Roundup as we bring you the trends and conversations unfolding in Anaheim at the RE+ 2022 conference formerly known as SPI. If you are in Anaheim, visit us at the PowerUp Media Zone, booth 438. You can also watch the show stream live from suncast.live . Are there other technologies you’ve scouted on the frontlines of the Clean Energy Revolution that you think we should be covering here on SunCast? Hit us up - team@suncast.me with your feedback &am...
Sep 20, 2022•26 min•Season 10Ep. 520
Today's entrepreneur is no stranger to the solar startup world. He was part of the early merger and acquisition activity that ultimately became the juggernaut we all remember as SunEdison. That, alone, would be worth the listen, but wait, there’s more. Mark Culpepper has a brilliant mind and a fascinating story about transitioning from tech to the solar world. Like many of us, he became interested when he started looking at solar for his home. And through that decision, he landed in an advantage...
Sep 15, 2022•1 hr 37 min•Season 10Ep. 519
I fondly remember circa 2018 (when I first debuted the Know before you go episode) I was barely at Episode 112, and I interviewed Andy Klump for the first time in my hotel room at the Hilton Anaheim! Here we are 4 yrs and >400 episodes later, and this Pre-conference episode feels as important as ever! Each year, I try to curate the collective wisdom of 5 of my favorite industry thought-leaders (who somehow carve out time before the show to spend 10min with me) and deliver it to you as a sampl...
Sep 13, 2022•51 min•Season 10Ep. 518
Australian legend David Scaysbrook has nearly 30 years of experience in energy and renewable infrastructure. He and his partner, Rory Quinlan, co-founded Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners Group — one of the industry's most lauded and recognizable renewable energy fund and development platforms. Headquartered in London with offices on three continents, Quinbrook is an ESG-focused, "value add" investment manager focused on low carbon and renewable energy supply, storage, grid stability and related...
Sep 08, 2022•1 hr 36 min•Season 10Ep. 517
Solar projects are growing exponentially — and while that's positive by almost any metric, it comes with complications. Take site selection for instance. We're running out of the easy, flat terrain in the deserts and abundant farm fields so prevalent a decade ago. Solar developers are reevaluating rocky, hilly terrain as prices rise on the remaining prime parcels. This is where the foundation conversation meets the ground, as it were. Selecting the proper ground-mount foundation will minimize de...
Sep 06, 2022•39 min•Season 10Ep. 516
Spencer Oberan — aka "a solar guy" — and Pat Bennett — "a tech guy" — discovered cumbersome and disjointed processes were slowing the growth of solar businesses. In 2018, he and Pat decided to solve the problem by creating Enerflo, a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform purpose-built for the solar industry. The Huntington Beach, California-based company promises solar installers and sales dealers "a seamless experience start to finish." By automating tasks and bringing everything together in a ...
Sep 01, 2022•1 hr 7 min•Season 10Ep. 515
