SunCast

One of the most common assumptions in business is that responsibility should be earned only after years of experience. After more than two decades as a Navy F/A-18 fighter pilot and instructor, Jason Knapp came to a different conclusion: capability often follows responsibility, provided organizations are willing to invest in training, honest feedback, and continuous learning. That philosophy shape...

A single battery cell can shut down an entire storage plant. It's one of the many operational realities that make battery storage fundamentally different from solar, and one of the reasons software, analytics, and automation are becoming just as important as the batteries themselves. Ty Fenton, Director of Data Analytics at FlexGen, joins Nico Johnson to explore what really happens after a battery...

Last year, solar and storage accounted for more than 80% of all new power generation capacity added in the United States. So why does our industry still behave like the underdog? In this special collaboration between SunCast and Energy Empire, Nico Johnson and Jigar Shah sit down with Dan Shugar, one of the most accomplished entrepreneurs in solar, to explore a question that reaches far beyond tec...

For decades, the energy industry has treated its biggest challenge as building more power. Sean Kelly thinks that's the wrong question. As CEO and co-founder of Amperon, Sean spends his days helping utilities, traders, generators, and some of the world's largest electricity users anticipate what's coming next. And what he's learned is surprisingly simple: the grid's biggest challenge isn't produci...

Everyone agrees we need more distributed energy. The harder question is: who pays for it? That's the question Molly Bauch has been wrestling with. As North American Connected Energy Lead at Accenture, Molly helped develop a new model that connects one of the fastest-growing sources of electricity demand with one of the country's biggest energy challenges. The idea is surprisingly simple. Data cent...

What determines whether a battery project performs safely over its lifetime? According to Kathleen McCaffery and Jeff Zwijack, the answer has as much to do with process, preparation, and quality assurance as it does with the battery itself. In this special live SunCast broadcast, Nico Johnson sits down with Kathleen McCaffery, retired Battalion Chief and former Global Fire Liaison for Tesla, and J...

There are 43 years of decisions compressed into this episode. And if you work in energy, utilities, infrastructure, manufacturing, or public policy, it's worth your attention. Tom Fanning spent four decades at Southern Company, including 13 years as CEO, helping guide one of the largest and most influential power companies in the United States through extraordinary change. Along the way, he oversa...

Leadership transitions reveal what companies value most. When FTC Solar recently tapped Anthony Carroll as the new CEO, they chose someone who has spent more than two decades helping build some of clean energy's most recognizable companies. From helping scale Power Electronics from a small Spanish manufacturer into a global powerhouse, to leading Powin during a period of extraordinary growth, Anth...

What if the most compelling case for clean energy isn't climate change, economics, or energy independence? What if it's public health? Former EPA Administrator Michael Regan has spent his career connecting pollution, environmental protection, and energy policy to the everyday health of American communities. In this special collaboration between SunCast and Energy Empire, Nico Johnson and Jigar Sha...

Rare earths are having a moment. And if you work anywhere near clean energy, batteries, EVs, data centers, defense, or domestic manufacturing, this conversation should be on your radar. And, when it comes to rare earths (aka critical minerals), it seems everyone talks about mining. But according to Mark LaVerghetta, that's not where the real critical minerals challenge lies. Nico got a chance to s...

Risk looks different depending on where you're standing. In Episode 936 (Jason Kaminsky & 2026 The Solar Risk Assessment), we explored risk through the lens of data, operations, and asset performance. Today’s episode looks at it through the eyes of someone who spent four decades preparing organizations for uncertainty, disruption, and worst-case scenarios. General Robert Neller served as the 3...

Solar projects are increasingly being financed and operated as long-life infrastructure assets. That means the industry can no longer rely on assumptions about risk—we need evidence. In this episode, Jason Kaminsky, CEO of kWh Analytics, walks us through what the latest Solar Risk Assessment reveals, and answers a deceptively simple question: Which solar risks actually matter? Drawing on dozens of...

A solar moratorium nearly shut down Alabama’s emerging solar market before most of the industry even saw it coming. For years, the prevailing assumption has been that clean energy growth would be concentrated in politically progressive states while places like Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi lagged behind. But that’s not what Monika Gerhart is seeing (and doing!) on the ground. As Executive Di...

Climatetech is entering a different phase. The era of easy capital, oversized narratives, and growth-at-all-costs expectations is giving way to something more demanding: disciplined execution, durable business models, strong commercialization pathways, and teams that can scale proven solutions in real markets. In this live conversation, Nico Johnson sits down with longtime investor David Kirkpatri...

Clean energy has made tremendous progress on technology. Solar is cheaper. Batteries are scaling. Virtual power plants are becoming real grid assets. Electrification is accelerating. But many people still do not understand why these technologies matter to them personally — or whether they are actually worth the cost. So what’s missing? In this conversation, Nico sits down with Jessica Fishman to e...

Battery storage is becoming one of the most complicated sales conversations in residential solar. Installers are now navigating different sizing requirements, shifting homeowner expectations, changing utility rate structures, evolving battery chemistries, and a flood of new products entering the market at wildly different price points. And underneath all of it is a harder question: Who can you act...

Electricity demand is rising fast. But New York is asking a different question than most states: What kind of demand is actually worth building for? In this live conversation from IESNA 2026, Nico sits down with Doreen Harris, President of NYSERDA, to explore how one of the largest economies in the country is preparing for 20–25% electricity load growth over the next 15 years. From AI infrastructu...

AI data centers are changing more than electricity demand. They are changing how the grid itself has to operate. Legacy data centers behaved with relatively flat, predictable load profiles. But giga-scale AI campuses introduce rapid swings in demand that can stress substations, destabilize generation assets, and expose the limits of infrastructure designed for a very different era. In today’s epis...

The grid is getting more crowded. EVs. Heat pumps. Batteries. Rooftop solar. Flexible demand. What used to be a system built around a few thousand centralized assets is rapidly becoming a network of millions of connected devices interacting with the grid in real time. That changes everything. In this episode, Nico sits down with Devrim Celal, Chief Flexibility Officer at Kraken, to unpack why the...

Australia is installing solar and batteries for about $2 a watt. In the U.S., it’s closer to $5.50. So why do we still have this huge gap? Barry Cinnamon went to Australia to find out. What he discovered challenges one of the industry’s favorite explanations. Even if you remove permitting delays and other “soft costs,” the U.S. still doesn’t come close. Today’s Tactical Tuesday breaks down the rea...

Rebuilding solar manufacturing in the U.S. is not just about capital or policy. It is about making the right bets at the right time. It comes down to timing, experience, and the critical decisions. Alex Zhu has spent nearly two decades inside the global solar manufacturing system—from the early rise of Chinese production to failed U.S. factory attempts, and now to building one of the few solar cel...

Are data centers starting to bypass the grid? A growing share of planned projects are pairing with behind-the-meter generation, and the shift has happened quickly. At the same time, there’s still real debate about how much of this will actually materialize. Michael Thomas, founder of Cleanview, tracks what moves through interconnection queues, permitting timelines, and development pipelines. His d...

Most people [who have been in the industry awhile] have opinions about SunEdison. This is one of the first times Ahmad Chatila and Jigar Shah have sat down together to compare notes on how it actually played out. Both were inside it. Both made the bets. Both saw things others didn’t. In this conversation, the two leaders who helped build one of solar’s most ambitious companies sit down to examine...

Dean Solon has always been a pattern matcher. Across projects, conversations, and time in the field, he’s constantly picking up on what’s changing — where pressure is building, where systems start to strain, and where the next opportunity is taking shape. But seeing the pattern is only half the story. Joseph Fahrney is the one who has to turn those signals into real products, real partnerships, an...

You can now plug solar panels into a wall outlet in some states. No permits. No installer or electrician even required? Just… plug it in. So who’s responsible when that system starts sending power back into your home, or the grid? Plug-in solar is moving faster than the standards designed to govern it. And right now, the rules are still being written. In this conversation, Nico Johnson sits down w...