SunCast

Want to grow a billion-dollar business? You need better systems, not just better ideas. Adam James has had a front-row view as Energy Impact Partners has scaled from a $500M fund into a multi-billion-dollar force as a clean energy VC. But, as he shares, the secret to success isn’t capital or flashy pitch decks. It’s an obsession with infrastructure, team building, and doing the messy work of align...

The solar industry scaled faster than almost anyone expected. But in the rush to deploy, one part of the system never fully got built. In this episode, Nico Johnson sits down with Suvi Sharma , founder of Solaria and now co-founder and CEO of SolarCycle, to talk about what happens after solar works. Suvi explains why end-of-life planning, repowering, and material recovery are no longer edge cases...

What goes through Alex Honnold’s mind when he’s thousands of feet off the ground without a rope? After his first-ever Taipei 101 Live Broadcast ascent of one of the world’s tallest buildings, we thought it’d be useful to revisit what we learned from Alex about mental fortitude and his singular admonition to “do the thing”. Curious how Alex channels discomfort into growth? This episode explores the...

Clean energy should be easy to finance. The money exists. The technology works. The demand is real. And yet, projects stall. Deals drag. Capital gets stuck. And with the IRA crumbling under our feet, everyone is right to ask “how will these projects actually get funded?!” So what’s actually broken? In this episode of SunCast, I sit down with Alfred Johnson , CEO and co-founder of Crux , to unpack...

Data centers aren’t the problem. They’re the stress test. As AI-driven demand surges, the grid is being pushed in ways it was never designed for. But instead of asking how to slow data centers down, today’s conversation asks a better question: Is the grid fit enough to handle what’s coming next? In this Tactical Tuesday episode, recorded live with the Smart Electric Power Alliance, we explore grid...

What does a modern energy company actually look like? In this episode, Nick Chaset, CEO of Octopus Energy US , joins Nico Johnson to explore a question that sits at the center of Octopus’s strategy: Is it a utility with great technology—or a technology company operating inside energy? Nick’s career spans California energy policy, years running East Bay Community Energy, and now scaling Octopus in...

Big things come in small packages. Could something smaller than a deck of cards be instrumental in our ability to meet the needs of the energy transition? In the ever-evolving landscape of power electronics, one material has been steadily gaining prominence due to its exceptional properties and transformative potential: Silicon Carbide (SiC). This remarkable semiconductor has revolutionized variou...

The power grid isn’t just growing (at unprecedented rates!) It’s becoming more complex, more distributed, and harder to manage. In this episode, Marc Spieler, who leads NVIDIA’s global Energy business, explains how AI and accelerated computing already support grid operations, solar and storage forecasting, and infrastructure planning across the energy sector. Nico and Marc explore why electrificat...

The energy grid is facing a challenge unlike anything we’ve seen before. Think about this: one Virginia co-op has over 20 GW of demand in its queue. That’s more than the energy demand of New York City. As electrification and data center expansion accelerate, public power and electric co-ops are on the front lines of solving this surge. Electric cooperatives and public utilities are facing a wave o...

2025 was a year of hardship for many, yet it was also a crucible for entrepreneurs, developing grit, resilience and perspective. We were able to capture some phenomenal conversations on the SunCast Podcast, and wanted to highlight a few that stand out for their vision and which also got among the most downloads of the year. In 2025, the clean energy industry was finally thinking like Amazon, build...

What do a struggling mom in Georgia and a solar installer named Jim have in common? Their stories can change elections and shape public perception of clean energy. In this final episode of 2025, Aaron Nichols returns to SunCast with a mission: rescue storytelling from corporate cliché and remind us why one emotional story is worth a thousand graphs. His viral LinkedIn article Four Rules for Storyt...

🎄 Pull up a chair and pour some eggnog. It’s time for the first-ever SunCast Christmas episode. This special holiday edition brings together the full SunCast leadership crew—Nico Johnson, Jeremy Pingul, and (drumroll, please) new team member Josh Beck—for a reflective and lively roundtable you won’t want to miss. What made 2025 so memorable? From Alex Honnold’s surprising passion for solar, to te...

Can the city known for oil & gas become the center of clean energy? In this powerhouse episode, we meet Jane Stricker , SVP of Energy Transition at the Greater Houston Partnership and Executive Director of HETI (Houston Energy Transition Initiative). Jane shares a front-row view of Houston’s bold strategy to stay the energy capital of the world – not just in oil, but in all forms of energy. Ja...

Solar is finally getting smarter. And faster - thanks to…robots? Recorded live at RE+ 2025, this episode takes you behind the scenes of solar’s most advanced innovations — from automation in engineering to AI-driven O&M and digital twins. Hosts Amy Norstedt and Josh Beck sit down with some of the Industry’s most forward-thinking executives to talk real-time transformation across the project li...

Most people in solar avoid the uncomfortable conversation: what happens when systems age, warranties expire, components fail, and the original installer is long gone. Cesar Barbosa — founder of NuLife Power Services — has built a business around the part of the industry nobody wants to talk about: decommissioning, system remediation, and repowering . In this episode, Cesar breaks down why aging co...

The rules of the game have changed. Have you figured out the OB3 playbook? From massive tax credit shifts to permitting bottlenecks and foreign entity restrictions, the so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill” has reshaped the future of clean energy in America. At this year’s RE+ 2025, top minds from GoodLeap, Infineon, SEIA, and Wood Mackenzie broke down what OB3 really implicates across solar, storage...

AI is pushing the grid to its limits — and transformers are now the critical path for both data centers and renewable projects. Today’s guest, Doug Banty , EVP at Forgent (and former CEO of MGM Transformers), sits at the intersection of these two worlds. Half of his week at RE+ was spent across the strip at the Yotta data center conference, where the only topic on everyone’s mind was power . In th...

What’s your plan when the power goes out? If you think a generator is your only option, think again. Today’s conversation, live from our RE+ PowerUp Live stage, Rachel Stotts of Jackery breaks down a new category of home energy backup: flexible, modular systems that you can easily scale and take with you . Whether you're facing tornadoes or planning a weekend tailgate, portable energy solutions co...

“Speed to Power” is the new race — but can the grid keep up? Hyperscalers, AI, and industrial demand are pushing load growth from flat to vertical. Yet most projects still take five to seven years just to interconnect. That’s the bottleneck Hugo Mena is tackling as Chief Growth Officer at Electric Power Engineers (EPE) . This live conversation addresses the forces shaping the grid of the future —...

This Giving Tuesday, SunCast brings you three powerful stories of how clean energy is transforming communities, saving lives, and unlocking local climate action. Host Nico Johnson sits down with leaders working across three different fronts of the climate fight: • Robin Swanhuyser — Twende Solar Electrifying community hubs in places like rural Ghana, turning schools and clinics into resilience eng...

Can getting a solar permit be as fast as ordering takeout? Permitting may be the most boring part of solar, but it's also the biggest bottleneck. That’s what Matthew McAllister is working to fix. As CEO of SolarAPP , he’s leading a quiet revolution that helps installers skip the paperwork and get to work faster with instant, automated approvals. In this episode, we dive into Matthew’s journey from...

America’s about to make a big bet on critical minerals and rare earths. In case you missed it, the DOE just reorganized and announced a major initiative around the refining of this critical element in our energy and defense future.  Why?  Because the energy and defense sectors are dangerously dependent on China’s refining power; but, what if we could change that without opening a single...

In 2008, Fluence installed one of the first lithium-ion battery systems ever connected to the U.S. grid. Back then, the idea of a domestic battery supply chain felt distant—almost theoretical. Today, it’s real. John Zahurancik, now President of Fluence Americas, has spent nearly two decades pushing the storage industry from “interesting pilot projects” to critical grid infrastructure . The last ti...

Most solar projects are still built the hard way—treating structure, electrical, and software as separate scopes that have to be stitched together in the field. But the teams delivering gigawatts today know something different: solar plants work best when they’re designed as systems, not parts. In this Tactical Tuesday, Nico sits down with three of the people shaping that shift inside Nextpower: J...

Batteries aren’t just supporting the grid anymore, they are defending the grid. Chris Finley, CCO of TruGrid , joins Nico on stage at PowerUp Live to explain how battery storage has shifted from a “nice-to-have” to a mission-critical asset class. Whether it’s enabling arbitrage in ERCOT or powering hyperscale data centers, battery systems are now leading the charge, literally. From the complexitie...