Soliverse | The Future of Solar

Send us Fan Mail Rooftop solar costs seven times more in the US than in Australia, and most energy professionals don't know why. Gavin Mooney, energy and utilities software expert based in Australia, breaks down how a 7-kilowatt system runs around 4,000 USD in Australia versus 28,000 USD in the US, pointing to the specific soft-cost and permitting reforms that created that gap. Where American...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, Peter Pongracz sits down with Bradley Mundt, CEO and Co-Founder of PLAN-B NET ZERO AG, to explore why a renewable energy company is building something that looks a lot more like a tech lifestyle brand than a traditional electricity supplier. Bradley breaks down the concept of Neo Energy: the idea that solar industry insights and clean electricity can be packaged t...

Send us Fan Mail Most discussions around energy storage focus on electricity. But what if the bigger opportunity is heat? In this episode of Soliverse, Peter Pongracz speaks with Tommi Eronen, CEO and Co-Founder of Polar Night Energy, the company behind the world's first commercial sand battery. Tommi shares the story behind the technology, how thermal energy storage works, and why industrial...

Send us Fan Mail What does it take to build utility-scale solar at the speed the energy transition actually needs? In this episode of Soliverse | The Future of Solar, Peter Pongracz speaks with Matt Campbell, CEO and Co-Founder at Terabase Energy Inc., about the future of solar construction, AI-driven robotics, energy storage, and the digital systems needed to scale solar from megawatts to gigawat...

Send us Fan Mail What if solar’s biggest advantage right now is not more complexity, but simpler communication? In this episode of Soliverse l The Future of Solar Episode 39, host Peter Pongracz is joined by Aaron Nichols, host of This Week In Solar and Marketing and BD Manager at Exact Solar, and Jacob Yang, Founder and CEO of Amp Your Story and clean energy marketer. Together, they explore why s...

Send us Fan Mail Is Europe’s solar market hitting a wall, or entering its next phase? In this episode of Soliverse | The Future of Solar, host Peter Pongracz speaks with Antonio Arruebo Lacleta, Market Analyst at SolarPower Europe and the Battery Storage Europe Platform, about why solar installations are slowing, what negative power prices are telling us, and why battery storage is becoming essent...

Send us Fan Mail What happens when energy policy plans the future grid, but leaves storage out of the equation? In this episode of Soliverse | The Future of Solar , host Peter Pongracz sits down with Dr Radovan Kopecek , Co-Founder and Director at ISC Konstanz , to unpack why the next phase of solar depends on battery storage, local manufacturing, and clearer industrial strategy across Europe, the...

Send us Fan Mail What does it really take to build, finance, and scale solar projects when policy keeps shifting, capital is more cautious, and grid constraints are getting harder to ignore? In this episode of Soliverse | The Future of Solar, host Peter Pongracz sits down with Benoy Thanjan, Founder and CEO of Reneu Energy and host of the Solar Maverick Podcast, for a grounded conversation on wher...

Send us Fan Mail What really slows down utility-scale solar projects, bad engineering, weak execution, or the red tape nobody budgets for early enough?  In this episode of Soliverse, Peter Pongracz sits down with Phil Horwitch, co-founder of AMH Holdings, to unpack how the best solar teams handle permitting delays, stakeholder friction, QA/QC problems, and the hidden communication gaps that quietl...

Send us Fan Mail On this episode of the Soliverse Podcast , Peter sits down with Gijsbert Huijink , co-founder of SOL Romania , to unpack why Romania might just be Europe’s most underrated solar and battery market. Gijsbert shares hard-won lessons from developing 1 GW+ of projects—from grid hacks and battery-first strategies to why Romania is moving faster than Germany or the Netherlands on BESS d...

Send us Fan Mail On this episode of the Soliverse Podcast , Peter sits down with David Spieldenner from Terabase Energy , to expose the massive bottlenecks holding solar back—and why smarter performance modeling might be the key to unlocking the next Terawatt. David doesn’t hold back as he makes the case for PlantPredict over legacy tools like PVsyst, and highlights why accuracy isn’t enough—reali...

Send us Fan Mail On this episode of the Soliverse Podcast, Peter sits down with Andreas Bach, a senior EPC executive and advisor with 15+ years of solar and storage experience, working across Europe, the Middle East, India, and Africa. From burned MC4 plugs and untrained labor to winter construction delays and 300,000 tons of PV waste on the horizon—Andreas shares hard-earned lessons on what goes...

Send us Fan Mail About This Episode On this episode of the Soliverse Podcast, Peter sits down with Daniel Domingues , Founder & CEO of Planno.io , the Geospatial AI platform that’s fixing one of distributed solar’s biggest bottlenecks: finding the right commercial and industrial rooftops . After years developing rooftop solar projects across the Middle East and Europe, Daniel saw firsthand how...

Send us Fan Mail On this episode of the Soliverse Podcast, Peter sits down with Joshua Feinberg , Founder of the Data Center Sales & Marketing Institute (DCSMI) , to unpack the evolving sales landscape in energy, data centers, and clean tech. With 30 years in tech and energy marketing, Joshua shares hard-earned insights into how AI, buyer behavior, and workforce trends are forcing a full reset...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of the Soliverse Podcast, Peter sits down with Genna Boyle , CCO at Gridcog , to unpack one of the most important—and misunderstood—forces shaping energy today: flexibility . As the grid gets more complex and congested, batteries, flexible loads, and smarter software are becoming essential to how we plan, build, and operate energy systems. Genna explains why tradit...

Send us Fan Mail On this episode of the Soliverse Podcast , Peter sits down with Marek Kubik —battery expert, energy futurist, and co-founder of Fluence —to explore what’s next for battery energy storage systems (BESS) , AI in energy , and the clean tech infrastructure that will shape our net-zero future. With over 16 years in the industry, Marek unpacks what it really takes to scale energy storag...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of the Soliverse Podcast , Peter sits down with Tim Montague , founder of Clean Power Hour and Clean Power Consulting , to unpack how AI, batteries, and grid modernization are reshaping the economics—and future—of solar. From LLMs and layoffs to data centers and microgrids, Tim explains why every solar company now needs an AI strategy—and why smart infrastructure b...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of the Soliverse Podcast , Peter sits down with Joachim Rupp —solar veteran, investor, and advisor—to explore what’s really holding the clean energy transition back: fragmented systems, missing talent, and the absence of true end-to-end thinking. With two decades of experience across hardware, software, venture capital, and project development, Joachim shares why s...

Send us Fan Mail On this episode of the Soliverse Podcast , Peter sits down with Guillaume Burstert , founder of Sunwise , who’s on a mission to replace diesel generators with plug-and-play solar containers—and bring power to over 300 million people across Africa. From sourcing solar components in China to scaling containerized mini-grids in Senegal and Tanzania, Guillaume shares how manufacturing...

Send us Fan Mail On this episode of the Soliverse Podcast , Peter sits down with Martin Lips , Chief Commercial Officer at Fusebox , to explore one of the most overlooked—and powerful—levers in Europe’s energy transition: flexibility . While everyone’s chasing more solar, more batteries, and more capacity, Fusebox is solving the real bottleneck— coordination . From demand response to on-site optim...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of the Soliverse Podcast, Peter sits down with Julia Wu and Anuj Saigal—co-founders of SparkHQ.ai , the AI startup tackling one of clean energy’s biggest pain points: permitting. With delays and cancellations killing up to 80% of solar projects, Spark is using large language models and real-world empathy to help developers build faster, smarter, and at scale. They...

Send us Fan Mail On this episode of the Soliverse Podcast, Peter sits down with Trygve Mongstad, physicist and CEO of Over Easy Solar, to unpack how vertical, prefab solar units are reshaping the future of flat rooftops—and why it’s time we rethink what solar looks like. From prefab bifacial panels to ballast-free installs and green roof compatibility, Trygve shares how Over Easy is bringing simpl...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of the Soliverse Podcast, Peter sits down with Joachim Reinhardt , Co-Founder of Variate Energy , to explore the next frontier of utility-scale energy: building smarter, data-driven hybrid solar projects that actually meet demand—when it matters most. With the rise of AI, energy-hungry data centers, and congested grids, solar can no longer afford to “just produce.”...

Send us Fan Mail On this episode of the Soliverse Podcast, Peter sits down with Tom Bitting , Managing Director at Advantage Capital , to dive into the money behind solar—and how smart financing is now central to grid resilience, battery storage, and the future of U.S. competitiveness. As AI, data centers, and blackout risks collide with political uncertainty, Tom offers an unfiltered look at what...

Send us Fan Mail On this episode of the Soliverse Podcast, Peter sits down with Bethany Meban , Head of Communications at SolarPower Europe , to unpack the forces reshaping solar in Europe—from slowing growth to massive storage opportunities, policy shifts, and what's truly driving the next wave of clean energy. With solar forecasted to shrink for the first time in a decade, Bethany offers a...