Seventeen years ago, two young boys from Washington, DC set a ball in motion that would spark a nationwide solar movement. What inspired them? Al Gore. Solar United Neighbors (SUN), a national nonprofit, began as a grassroots effort when two preteens, inspired by An Inconvenient Truth , rallied their neighbors to adopt solar energy. Their initial door-to-door campaign grew into a solar co-op, which has since evolved into SUN, has driven key policy changes across the USA and fosters a network of ...
Oct 03, 2024•1 hr 10 min•Season 14Ep. 747
Advancements in Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) are setting new standards in renewable energy integration and at a break-neck pace. Wärtsilä Energy Storage and Optimization (ES&O) has long been a leader of this innovation, developing solutions to meet the growing demand for larger, more efficient battery systems, while recognizing the limitations of scale in the race to pack in the most energy density. With a diverse portfolio of products, from their flagship DC block Quantum series to...
Oct 01, 2024•25 min•Season 14Ep. 746
Domestic manufacturing is making a COMEBACK! There, I finally admit it. I never thought it’d happen, to be honest, as you’ll here in today’s episode. On August 8th, we were invited to Houston, Texas for the grand opening of SEG Solar's new solar module factory. In the heart of oil & gas country, this state-of-the-art facility raises the bar for domestic solar manufacturing. With fully automated production lines producing two gigawatts of panels annually—and plans to expand to five gigawatts ...
Sep 27, 2024•16 min•Season 14Ep. 745
What if you could go online, get a solar quote in under a minute, and bypass door knocking sales reps? That's the promise of Project Solar, a Utah-based startup with over $23 M in Series A funding, that's changing the way residential solar is sold. Founders Matthew Smith and Trevor Hiltbrand are disrupting the solar market with a direct-to-consumer model that eliminates the middleman, offering transparency and simplicity. Leveraging their deep e-commerce expertise and entrepreneurial backgrounds...
Sep 26, 2024•1 hr 16 min•Season 14Ep. 744
Many of our regular listener energy nerds are aware that the U.S. Department of Energy Loan Programs Office (LPO), under the leadership if Secretary Granholm and Jigar Shah, has evolved from a near-dormant entity with just one loan in the previous administration to committing over $31 billion to projects across critical clean energy sectors like hydrogen, storage, solar, EVs, Carbon sequestration and more. With an expanded pipeline of 209 applications requesting $281.1 billion in financing, the ...
Sep 24, 2024•31 min•Season 14Ep. 743
When I started SunCast, it seemed like there were lots of “Pioneers”; I even did a series focused on Solar Pioneers. That was 9 yars ago. Nowadays, most people are following playbooks others have written, and true pioneers are few-and-far-between. But I do still get to bring real pioneers on the show. Today’s guest has taken all 9 years to lock down, despite having first met Billy Parish in 2011, fully 4 yrs before I started SunCast! Good things come to those who wait. And you’ve waited a long t...
Sep 19, 2024•1 hr 11 min•Season 14Ep. 742
As RE+ 2024 wound to a close last Thursday, Nico Johnson sat down with three of the solar industry’s top content creators to discuss the standout innovations and key takeaways they captured from the largest clean energy event in North America. They dive into how solar is evolving beyond just panels on rooftops and into integrated home energy solutions; Each shares their insights on the products and technologies that will define the industry. It’s a first-ever collaboration of some of the solar i...
Sep 17, 2024•32 min•Season 14Ep. 741
Nico Johnson, Lisa Ann Pinkerton and Josh Beck round out RE+ 2024 with Abby Hopper, Stephanie Bosh and Colin Silver of SEIA. Mentioned in this episode: CPS July 2024 V2
Sep 13, 2024•37 min•Season 14Ep. 740
Start each day the full replay of the Daily Round Up with Nico Johnson and Josh Beck as we bring you the trends and conversations unfolding in Anaheim at the RE+ 2024 conference. If you are in Anaheim, visit us at the PowerUp Media Zone booth E100, Lobby of Hall D. You can also watch the show stream live at suncast.live . Mentioned in this episode: CPS July 2024 V2
Sep 12, 2024•40 min•Season 14Ep. 739
Start each day with highlights from the Morning Show with Nico Johnson and Lisa Ann Pinkerton and then the full replay of the Daily Round Up with Nico Johnson and Josh Beck as we bring you the trends and conversations unfolding in Anaheim at the RE+ 2024 conference. If you are in Anaheim, visit us at the PowerUp Media Zone booth E100, Lobby of Hall D. You can also watch the show stream live at www.suncast.live . Are there other technologies you’ve scouted on the frontlines of the Clean Energy Re...
Sep 11, 2024•37 min•Season 14Ep. 738
Oh, Florida! You’re the Sunshine State…why has it taken you so long to establish a real solar market? Well, the good news is it’s now heating up. But, that means so is the competition! So, how do you build a profitable solar business in one of the most competitive markets in the U.S.? Mike Vergona, the founder of Urban Solar, has been a key player in Florida’s solar industry for over a decade, and has become one of the most respected and referred solar installers in the state. Mike’s journey fro...
Sep 05, 2024•1 hr 14 min•Season 14Ep. 737
One of the most common critical path bottlenecks of any infrastructure project, energy or otherwise, is the transformer and substation. The interconnection of the power plant to the electrical grid requires this hardware - and it’s famously hard to come by these days, with lead times often in excess of 18 months. If you’re involved in renewable energy, in particular EPC services, you know the pressure to deliver projects faster than ever. Dan Girard, CEO of Alternative Power Generation (APG), sh...
Sep 03, 2024•19 min•Season 14Ep. 736
Knowing when and why to invest in patents can be a game-changer for your startup. But what’s the right strategy to ensure your intellectual property is truly protected? And how do you know WHEN is the right time to take this crucial step? Patent attorney Russ Krajec brings more than two decades of experience to bear in this insider's perspective on navigating the treacherous world of Intellectual Property Rights. Russ, an attorney by trade, is also an author and angel investor who has dedicated ...
Aug 30, 2024•26 min•Season 14Ep. 735
How does an idea go from concept to lab, from lab to field, and finally attract massive capital investment? What can a decade of business building behind the iron curtain in post-cold-war Eastern Europe teach you? Ty Jagerson has spent his over 25 years executive career launching and growing businesses at Xerox (PARC), SolFocus, Google X, and most recently General Motors. His work at Google X, on Tapestry-the Moonshot Factory project, focused on overcoming the data bottlenecks that hinder the in...
Aug 29, 2024•1 hr 18 min•Season 14Ep. 734
RE+ is only TWO Weeks Away! Back by popular demand, we’ve curated our annual "Know Before You Go" episode to help you make the most of this not-to-miss event. It’s the 20th anniversary, and with over 50,000 attendees expected—it’s set to be the biggest show yet! Tune in as industry leaders share their secrets to navigating the expanded show floor, optimizing your schedule, exploring educational sessions, and maximizing your networking opportunities for an exceptional experience at RE+ 2024. You’...
Aug 27, 2024•1 hr 6 min•Season 14Ep. 733
Despite more capital coming into the solar industry than ever before, healthy unit economics, rising utility rates, and even declining equipment costs, equity and debt instruments are trading at distressed levels, with working capital increasingly scarce. What's causing this disconnect, and how can the industry recover? John Berger, Founder and CEO of Sunnova, is a veteran in the energy market with over two decades of experience. His company is one of the largest solar installation companies in ...
Aug 22, 2024•32 min•Season 14Ep. 732
I have been looking [and waiting] for this book for years. And if you’re in Utility-scale battery storage, I’m going to boldly suggest that you have too. The wait is over, as the most comprehensive compendium on utility-scale battery energy storage is finally on shelves (or it was, it’s about to sell out!) Looking to expand your knowledge of utility-scale batteries and the evolution of solar+storage and standalone battery projects? Whether you're a developer integrating batteries into your solar...
Aug 20, 2024•1 hr 9 min•Season 14Ep. 731
With an anticipated 40% increase in energy consumption by 2035, the grid faces immense pressure. How do we service the rising demand driven by AI, data centers, and home electrification? The solution, distributed energy resources (DERs) allows homes to generate, store, and smartly consume their own energy. This shift from a centralized to a decentralized energy system aims to address the growing demand and enhance the efficiency of energy distribution. Raghu Belur, Co-Founder and Chief Product O...
Aug 15, 2024•38 min•Season 14Ep. 730
Deciding where and which customers to focus on can make or break a business. How do you go about choosing one market over another? Furthermore, how do you build a business in an otherwise overlooked market that makes the nation’s largest solar company, Sunrun, take notice? Hunter Trenary, co-owner of Sun Collectors, recently shared his journey of establishing a solar company in Peoria, Illinois. Starting from scratch in a market with untapped potential, Trenary and his partner navigated the comp...
Aug 13, 2024•27 min•Season 14Ep. 729
From thermonuclear weapons that helped stop the Cold War, to a Le Mans 24 Hour Eco Car, and now pioneering a revolutionary battery, today’s guest has a truly remarkable career path. We're revisiting one of our top episodes from 2022 featuring a real, actual rocket scientist - Michael Burz, the CEO and Co-Founder of Enzinc. His startup is is commercializing a truly innovative zinc-based battery that promises the power density and re-chargeability of lithium at lead-acid prices. Michael's journey ...
Aug 09, 2024•36 min•Season 14Ep. 728
Have you ever considered the environmental impact of the non-solar components we deploy in the solar industry? It’s good that we generate clean energy, and even better that we quantify the embodied energy of things like the solar panels we use. But, it takes a relatively “dirty” and old-fashioned industry to actually deliver those solar modules - logistics. And, one of the lowest-common-denominator, least-thought-about products in the logistics toolkit is a century-old ‘technology’ made of wood…...
Aug 08, 2024•1 hr 29 min•Season 14Ep. 727
You might think of community solar as a “Groupon for your energy bill” - you get discounted access to clean energy without needing to install solar panels, and leverage the buying power of a group purchase! Aviv Shalgi, CEO and co-founder of Solar Simplified, is dedicated to expanding the reach of community solar. Solar Simplified acts as an aggregator, linking subscribers with solar project developers. And as the industry grows, the role of aggregator plays an ever-increasing part in helping fo...
Aug 06, 2024•26 min•Season 14Ep. 726
What is the unsung hero of solar installations? Racking… It's a "set it and forget it" component for contractors, as its reliability is essential to avoid costly service calls, making that critical product choice a “near-religious experience” for most installers. Kai Stephan, the founder and CEO of Pegasus Solar, has developed one of the fastest growing solar mounting software and hardware solution providers here in the United States on the vision of simplifying the product and giving homeowners...
Aug 01, 2024•1 hr 4 min•Season 14Ep. 725
“Unclear expectations are a downpayment for future resentment.” Maria Kingery is the Founder & Principal of 360Impact and Co-Founder and Chief Impact Officer of Southern Energy Management. With over two decades of experience, Maria has honed her coaching practice to shepherd leaders through the gauntlet of business growth. Previously working within the EOS (Entrepreneurial Operating System) framework, Kingery now offers a “delightfully independent” coaching style that helps business leaders ...
Jul 30, 2024•44 min•Season 14Ep. 724
two years before the end of the Cold War to broker a licensing agreement for what would become the best-selling video game of all time: Tetris. Either of those feats would be remarkable; to accomplish both is a whole other level of entrepreneurial achievement. While some of you may not be familiar with today’s guest, you’ll definitely be familiar with his work, and you may have even watched a movie about him! Henk Rogers is known as the father of role-playing games in Japan and for introducing T...
Jul 26, 2024•25 min•Season 14Ep. 723
What does it take to build a 100-year business? How does one expand beyond integration of off-the-shelf products to branding power plants as a unique identifiable product? What does it take to secure an entire City’s rooftops…like Atlanta? Michael Chanin, the CEO and founder of Cherry Street Energy, is bringing this ambitious vision to fruition. Chanin's team is embracing the power of renewables for transforming our infrastructure, and my meeting with him left me inspired. Chanin is not your typ...
Jul 25, 2024•1 hr 15 min•Season 14Ep. 722
Every growth story has roots in finding scalable and duplicatable processes. From a Big Mac to the Macintosh, the capacity to create products people want and galvanize a team around delivering them is what sets true market leaders apart from their peers. However, in the more than 700 interviews we’ve done at SunCast, we know that the path to the top is not linear nor is it free from failure. So, when I see someone succeeding for multiple years in a leadership position, I want to know what made i...
Jul 23, 2024•50 min•Season 14Ep. 721
Imagine a Roomba on a solar farm with a camera that can automatically inspect modules, wiring, even hot-spots, and report all that information back instantaneously to the asset manager. That level of computer vision and automation is finally possible, and it looks a Lot like a fun Disney character you’d recognize! Derek Chase, founder and CEO of OnSight, is revolutionizing solar asset management through robotics and computer vision that uses a WALL-E-like advanced autonomous navigation robot to ...
Jul 18, 2024•1 hr 8 min•Season 14Ep. 720
Perhaps the best way to scale your company is by investing in your people! If knowledge is wealth, then upskilling your workers (and indeed yourself) could be the best return on your investment. Brittany Heller, Director of Program Management at HeatSpring, explains how training programs are not just essential for attracting and developing new talent, they’re also how growing companies scale commercially. By offering comprehensive online training, HeatSpring helps professionals learn at their ow...
Jul 16, 2024•14 min•Season 14Ep. 719
I’m going to argue that procurement (buyer OR seller) negotiations are just like hostage negotiations. Hear me out. Effective negotiations are crucial for uncovering hidden opportunities, maintaining control without aggression, and closing better deals. Mastering these skills can significantly impact business outcomes, ensuring more favorable terms and stronger relationships. And in procurement, there is often a lot at stake on both sides - and the hostage? Well, the project itself becomes the h...
Jul 12, 2024•19 min•Season 14Ep. 718
