SunCast

Solar Module Recycling and Refurbishing is a critical (if often overlooked) element of our green, clean energy future. Janette Freeman is passionate about saving the landfill from the millions of solar panels which will be coming to end-of-life in the years ahead. She is the Director of Business Development for FabTech Solar Solutions, which does solar panel refurbishing and recycling; giving pane...

Residential Solar finance is a hot hot market, and few companies have stormed the proverbial castle and taken a leadership position so decisively as Sunlight Financial. On the surface, it looks like a rather traditional "this banker left his banking job for another banking job" kind of story. But as you'll hear in today's interview with Sunlight's CEO, Matt Potere, it's anything but "traditional"....

Despite their widespread use in the renewable energy industry, using an 8760 to project financial performance can lead to significant errors in revenue models. In particular, revenue models that pair an 8760 with historical prices miss the impact of hourly renewable energy generation on hourly power prices. Because wind and solar plants are relatively inexpensive sources of generation, there tends...

Today's guest is Amy Simpkins, CEO of Mu Grid.  We talk about her life as a clean energy consultant, her history in astronautics and her new podcast, Power Flow.  Growing up in a culture of theater, music and performance, Amy has deep love for words and a connection to story.  But she spent years taming the right brain and training the left as an engineer, studying aeronautics and a...

Welcome, #SolarWarrior, to another Tactical Tuesday, a short-form conversation with subject-matter experts designed to give you practical tools, tips, and advice for building your solar business or career. Ten years ago, if you called on a solar company to give you a rooftop solar system proposal, one of your installer’s first steps was to come to your house, climb up on your roof, and take a bunc...

Today, Nico shares his 400th conversation with clean energy experts on Suncast. Each episode investigates a small piece of the big puzzle by asking CEO's, founders, entrepreneurs and thought-leaders to share their story and answer questions like "how did you get here?" and "where are you going?" One by one, these intimate conversations help unite a tribe of energy professionals from all sectors, w...

This is Part Two of our two-part series with Reagan Farr, CEO of Silicon Ranch, a pioneer of solar development in the Southeastern US. If you missed part 1, it's probably useful to queue that one up first, as it sets the tone for this episode. And, this one is a longer episode, as we get into the details of how Reagan and his cofounders Matt Kisber and former Governor Phil Bredesen, put the busine...

This is Part One of a two-part series with Reagan Farr, CEO of Silicon Ranch, a pioneer of solar development in the Southeastern US. We talk about his childhood in Baton Rouge, where "curiosity ruled the day" in a home of educators, law school, and 8 years as a commissioner with the Governor of Tennessee. Reagan was there when the state decided to attract clean energy companies both for headquarte...

Solar Power International was officially cancelled last Friday. 😩 Our thoughts and prayers are with those who are suffering and in the arduous process of Rebuilding that great city, yet again. In today's Tactical Tuesday Nico chats w/Danielle Danko of Solar Power Events (the org that produces SPI) about how we can support the NOLA community, and what the next events are that you can get ready for...

What does it look to disrupt an industry? What does it take to make a career of it? And as Jim Collins suggested, WHO do you need to get on the bus? In Today's episode Nico gets into these details with Solar pioneers Daniel Flanigan and Charles Pimentel as we navigate their clean energy career paths through Offgrid solar, Hydrogen (Plug Power), Solar modules & Development (Canadian Solar, Sola...

Whit Fulton knows a thing or two about solving problems. Today, I interview this introverted inventor & talk about his journey to deliver a brilliantly simple yet innovative energy solution to the world: a smart meter collar adapter. After seven years as the CEO of ConnectDER, his team is delivering a technology that dramatically simplifies the way residential solar and EV chargers are connect...

Today's Tactical Tuesday is the latest installment of our GREAT SOLAR DEBATE series, featuring two industry experts - Brian Potts, Partner at Perkins Coie and Karl Rábago, Principal at Rábago Energy. Brian and Karl debate the value of Net Energy Metering (NEM) in the residential market. Should it change to encourage more investment? Or should it remain a high value for res...

Unless you were under a rock last week, you prob noticed that two Solar industry SAAS titans have joined forces. Aurora Solar, hot off the heels of raising a giant $250M Round of funding, announced their first acquisition from that war chest - none other than Folsom Labs - makers of pioneering commercial solar design tool many of you use: Helioscope! Listen as Nico chats with our special guests -...

Today I talk to Ram Ambatipudi about his long history in energy and how that brought him into the world of Electric Vehicles. When Ram left business school in 1995 he headed straight to Southern California Gas Company. Turns out, being on the inside of the world of utilities would prove an unmatched advantage for him as moved through his career, from wind at Enron to PV at SolSource and then Large...

Today's Tactical Tuesday is a five minute jewel from our full episode with Clean Energy Associates' VP of Sales & Marketing, Darryl Parker. In this episode, Darryl focuses on understanding the customer beyond your average sales training. How can you really listen to the customer and structure your offer based on their real concerns? Are there other technologies you’ve scouted on the frontlines...

In today’s episode, we speak with a true solar pioneer, a well-known entrepreneur, Erica Mackey of GRID Alternatives. We break down her two decades of growth, entrepreneurship, and influence. Erica gives us a sense of the origin of GRID Alternatives. She talks about how she co-founded it way back in 2001 and how it evolved massively to become a major national nonprofit and off­-grid solar installa...

Today’s guest, Darryl Parker, brings more than three decades of extensive high-tech manufacturing and power electronics experience to his role at Clean Energy Associates. But he's got a truly inspiring story of growing up in the booming high tech industry, pulling up a seat at the table and opening the door for many who have followed in his footsteps! He currently leads the global sales and market...

Late last year, kWh Analytics released a report titled 2020 Solar Risk Assessment suggesting that Recent assessments of the solar industry’s pre-construction production estimates have found evidence of “an industry wide bias towards aggressive predictions,” noting that “when a typical solar project performs at the official “P90, equity cash yield drops by 50%.” This revelation has the potential to...

Today's story of Solar pioneer, Michelle McGee, is illustrative of the power of a good question. In this case, we learn one question that changed the course of her career. This former Tesla Exec leads us on a serendipitous journey, and explains how now as President of GivePower Foundation she supports global communities in need of power. Michele's a true serial entrepreneur having launched and sca...

Last week, the first ever Cleantech Podcaster's Roundtable was held with 8 of the major clean economy podcasts, hosted by my friend Mike Casey at Tigercomm. The discussions were a lot of fun (and very interesting) as we covered favorites sector trends, where we get our insights/info, key backgrounds we expect to see in CEOs of the sector in coming years, and how best to approach this (and other) g...

Nisha Desai, is a serial entrepreneur, TX clean energy pioneer, and founder and CEO of Ennuity Holdings. This "Startup Queen" has 25+ years of experience in the energy business, and has started companies that span 2 continents and multiple energy sectors. Listen in for critical steps of creating a company and how to skillfully navigate your way through the energy industry. In addition, we learn wh...

Do You understand Reactive Power? How's it different from Real Power? You're not alone, but we're here to help! ICYMI from 2020, this SunCast Rewind answers these 2 questions from one of our SunCast Summit speakers, Jacqueline DeSouza Jacqueline's company, Apparent, Inc, specializes in helping folks take advantage of the 3 elements of this complex topic, Real, reactive and apparent power. Are ther...

Today we get to soak in the wisdom of an industry pioneer in the solar-distribution business model. Boaz Soifer has been a solar pioneer for the last 20+ years. He is the Director of Solar Trade at BayWa r.e., where he oversees the company’s distribution activities in the US, Canada, and Mexico. Today we get into Boaz’s focus on co-creating a culture that truly values and contributes to personal a...

We will continue our SunCast Rewing theme, this time, dipping into the vault of one of our LinkedIn Live sessions from last year. I had a great conversation with John Powers of Extensible Energy about the value of capacity building in an organization during difficult times. In truth, this happened just as the pandemic started back in April of 2020. I recently looked back and asked myself, “ where...

Today's entrepreneur is Aviv Shalgi. He has several successful M&A VC investments and joint ventures under his belt, in addition to two successful startups prior to his current venture, Solar Simplified. Aviv has been a mentor and advisor to many entrepreneurs, startups, investors, VCs, nonprofits, and is a captain in the Israeli Defense Force or IDF, as many call it the eyes in the sky. We'll...